OBSERVATIONS. 19 



trifling a hollowness or concavity in the flank 

 as possible) these being by no means pointedly 

 prominent. The legs should not be too long 

 for the height of the horse, but short in the 

 joints, and particularly so upon the pas- 

 terns. 



These instructions respecting shape, make^ 

 and figure, will (with very few exceptions) 

 prove leading traits to the necessary and de- 

 sirable qualifications. To ascertain the whole 

 of which, no invariable rules can be laid 

 down as an infallible guide to certain perfec- 

 tion ; for there are many instances of very 

 well shaped horses having proved indifferent 

 goers, and others so entirely cross made as 

 to possess hardly a good point, being equal 

 in action to some of the finest figures in the 

 kingdom. Rules or instructions thus liable 

 to exception, (though they are established 

 by custom, and in a great degree justified by 

 experience,) have yet some claim to contri- 

 bution from the personal observation and de^ 

 liberate judgment of the purchaser ; for surely 

 it can require no extraordinary portion of 

 genius, or extent of penetration, to distin- 

 guish between '* a good goer' and a bad one : 



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