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 CHAPTER IV.

HOW TO BREED A HORSE—CANADIAN BLOOD.

THE CANADIAN ORIGINALLY THE FRENCH NORMAN—CHARACTERISTICS— HARDIHOOD—SPEED—MODE OF IMPROVING THEM—CROSSING WITH THOROUGH-BREDS. is one breed or stock of horses to which, thus far, we have but casually alluded. We mean the Canadian. It deserves, probably, a more extended notice, as being in itself, in the first place, a perfectly distinct family, where pure; and in the second, as being very widely extended, both in its mixed and unmixed form, in the Northern and Eastern States; and, moreover, as being itself an exceedingly valuable animal as a working horse, and a progenitor, or progenitrix. The Canadian horse where he is yet to be found in his pure state,—that is to say, uncrossed with either the English thorough-bred, or the English high-bred stallion of the hunter caste,—is originally, beyond doubt, the French Norman horse; and even where the crosses mentioned still exist, the French Norman blood vastly preponderates. The present characteristics of the Canadian are—a head rather large than otherwise, but lean, bony, and well formed, with an unusually broad forehead, with the ears far apart, carried loftily, a small clear eye, and a courageous aspect; a bold upstanding, but thick crest; a broad, full chest and a strong shoulder, a little apt to be too straight, as well as to be low and heavy at the withers; a stout, strongly-framed barrel, the [45]