The resting position chosen in 1909 for the mounting of the giant 

 Draught Horse is one of inaction and is designed to show the relaxa- 

 tion of the body and the mechanical interlocking of the knee-cap in 

 the left hind limb to release the muscles from the strain of the weight. 

 This peculiar function of the patella (knee-cap) is shown in the left 

 knee-joint, or stifle. While the joint is extended to support the ani- 

 mal's weight, the patella rests on the projecting process of the femur 

 so that the knee is locked in the extended position by a very strong 

 ligament which holds the patella a fixed distance from the tibia below, 

 thus sustaining the weight required of it with comparatively little 

 muscular exertion. Thus almost the entire weight of the hind quar- 

 ters is supported on the extended left leg, while the right hind leg rests 

 in a more flexed position and hangs perfectly lax. The pelvis also 

 seems to hang, as it were, from the left hip joint, tilting very much to 

 the right and twisting slightly the vertebral column. 



SHETLAND IN GRAZING POSITION 



This Shetland is a fully grown animal although the height at the 

 shoulders is only 33% inches. At the time the animal was purchased, in 

 June, 1902, in Scotland, through the kindness of Professor J. Cossar 

 Ewart of the University of Edinburgh, it was regarded as the most diminu- 

 tive Shetland pony which had been bred in Great Britain. Somewhat 

 smaller Shetlands have since been produced by selection and in-breeding. 



The modern Shetland pony has been produced by careful selection 

 and breeding of a race of domestic or half wild horses originally dwarfed 

 by unfavorable surroundings, inhabiting the bleak and barren Shet- 

 land Islands, with their cold, damp climate and restricted range. The 

 Percheron, on the other hand, bred to the plow and cart in the rich and 

 fertile lands of Normandy, has been improved by favorable conditions 

 and by selection for size and strength, and is the largest of the domestic 

 breeds of horses; the Shetland being the smallest. 



[17] 



