366 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



BLOOD, SYMMETRY AND COMPENSATIONS. 



Blood. — The relation of *' blood " to conformation is 

 its only one which need be considered here. 



The term " blood " usually signifies more or less pure 

 descent from animals mentioned in the English Stud Book, 

 or from high-caste Arabs. In our Colonies, the initials 

 T.B. have a more elastic application than in the mother- 

 country. As English thorough-bred horses have been 

 bred almost entirely with the object of their utilisation 

 on the Turf ; their conformation more or less resembles 

 that of the galloper. Were I to be asked to particularise 

 the " point " or " points " most characteristic of the 

 English " blood " horse, I would answer : " The legs below 

 the knees and hocks." Their special peculiarities, in this 

 respect, are : lightness of bone, thinness of skin, fineness 

 and shortness of hair, small amount of underlying con- 

 nective tissue, near approach to parallelism of back 

 tendons to cannon-bones, with consequent smallness of 

 fetlock joints (p. 282), good length of pasterns, and small 

 hoofs with well-arched soles. The speed of the thorough- 

 bred is the result of careful selection in breeding, by 

 which the best conformation for fast galloping has been 

 obtained, and also the most suitable kind of nervous 

 organisation. The effect of heredity is specially shown 

 in the working of the nerves, which regulate the exhi- 

 bition of all muscular force. Although they can in no 

 way increase the actual strength of a muscle, its failure 



