COMPARATIVE HEIGHT AT WITHERS AND CROUP. 177 



Her excess of height at the croup (about 2 inches) was 

 compensated for by the possession of remarkably long 

 and sloping shoulders. The large majority of racing 

 ponies I have known which were much lower at the 

 withers than at the croup, stood work badly, owing to 

 their fore legs being unusually liable to become infirm. 

 We may fully accept the statement that instability of 

 equilibrium (p. 69), which is increased according as the 

 weight on the fore legs exceeds that on the hind ones, 



Photo hy] 



[W. A. Ilouun, Stiiand. 



Fig. 277.— His Majesty's Persimmon. 



should be obtained, in the galloper, more by the body 

 being short and the legs and neck long, than by the 

 difference of height between the withers and the croup. 

 I cannot too strongly direct the attention of my readers 

 to the necessity of the hunter (p. 378) being " light in 

 front," and consequently, being higher at the withers 

 than over the croup. 



The lower a horse is in front, other things being equal, 



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