THE CHEST. 225 



to weight when our loads are heavy. In the dray-horse we prize this circular 

 chest, not only that he may be proportionably heavier before to him no disad- 

 vantage but that, by means of the increased capacity of his chest, he may 

 obtain the bulk and size which best fit him for our ser dee. But he would not 

 do for speed he would not do for ordinary quick exertion, and if he were 

 pushed far beyond his pace, he would become broken- winded, or have inflamed 

 lungs. 



Some of our saddle-horses and cobs have barrels round enough, and we value 

 them on account of it, for they are always in condition, and they rarely tire. 

 But when we look at them more carefully, there is just that departure from the 

 circular form of which mention has been made that happy medium between 

 the circle and the ellipse, which retains the capacity of the one and the expan- 

 sibility of the other. Such a horse is invaluable for common purposes, but he is 

 seldom a horse of speed. If he is permitted to go his own pace, and that not a 

 slow one, he will work on for ever ; but if he is too much hurried, he is soon 

 distressed. 



The Broad Deep Chet>t. Then for the usual purposes of the road, and more 

 particularly for rapid progression, search is made for that form of the chest 

 which shall unite, and to as great a degree as possible, considerable capacity in 

 a quiescent state, and the power of increasing that capacity when the animal 

 requires it. There must be the broad chest for the production of muscles and 

 sinews, and the deep chest, to give the capacity or power of furnishing arterial 

 blood equal to the most rapid exhaustion of vitality. 



This form of the chest is consistent with lightness, or at least with all the 

 lightness that can be rationally required. The broad-chested horse, or he that, 

 with moderate depth at the girth, swells and barrels out immediately behind 

 the elbow, may have as light a forehand and as elevated a wither as the horse 

 with the narrowest chest ; but the animal with the barrel approaching too 

 near to rotundity is invariably heavy about the shoulders and low in the 

 withers. It is to the mixture of the Arabian blood that we principally owe this 

 peculiar and advantageous formation of the chest of the horse. The Arab is 

 light ; some would say too much so before : but immediately behind the arms 

 the barrel almost invariably swells out, and leaves plenty of room, and where it 

 is most wanted for the play of the lungs, and at the same time where the 

 weight does not press so exclusively on the fore-legs, and expose the feet to con- 

 cussion and injury. 



Many horses with narrow chests, and a great deal of daylight under them, 

 have plenty of spirit and willingness for work. They show themselves well off, 

 and exhibit the address and gratify the vanity of their riders on the parade or in 

 the park, but they have not the appetite nor the endurance that will carry 

 them through three successive days' hard work. 



Five out of six of the animals that perish from inflamed lungs are narrow- 

 chested, and it might be safely affirmed that the far greater part of those 

 who are lost in the field after a hard day's run, have been horses whose 

 training has been neglected, or who have no room for the lungs to expand. 

 The most important of all points in the conformation of the horse is here eluci- 

 dated. An elevated wither, or oblique shoulder, or powerful quarters, are great 

 advantages ; but that which is most of all connected with the general health 

 of the animal, and with combined fleetness or bottom, is a deep, and broad, 

 and swelling chest, with sufficient lengthening of the sternum, or breast-bone, 

 beneath. 



If a chest that cannot expand with the increasing expansion and labour of 

 the lungs is so serious a detriment to the horse, everything that interferes with 

 the action of the intercostal muscles is carefully to be avoided. Tight girthing 



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