12 PURCHASING FROM THE STABLES. 



The stifle, and all that below it, must be broad 

 and strikingly muscular : he must be what is 

 termed well let dow^n in the thighs, plenty 

 of muscle inside the thigh as well as outside, 

 never hare-hammed ; and the muscle just above 

 the outside of the hock, in particular, should 

 be large.* Some horses are accounted too long 

 in the haunches, forcing them off at full speed, 

 but this is not against their running well. 

 These three points, the quarter, thigh, and 

 stifle, show the blood of a horse quite as much 

 as the head, eye, and jaw. A muscular and 

 elegantly dropped hind leg, having a fine elastic 

 spring, is far more difldcult to find than a casty 

 head. 



THE HOCKS AND THE HIND PARTS PROOF OF HALF 

 THE BREEDING. 



The hock of a fresh unworked Arab is ge- 

 nerally beautifully formed, and clean, and par- 

 ticularly excelling in the hind projecting bone 

 at the point. You must never expect a runner 

 in one who is glaringly deficient in this. The 

 hock should be broad also from side to side ; 



* The part a little below the stifle being narrow and want- 

 ing muscle. See Frontispiece. 



