235 



solely to the too great labour of our stallions and mares, both on the 

 turf and in the stud. 



In order to capital performance, a racer should have sufficient gene- 

 ral length ; but in the neck and legs, length should be moderate ; open 

 nostrils, and a loose and disembarrassed wind-pipe; high, deep, and 

 extensive shoulders, falling back into the waist; broad and substantial 

 loins or fillets, deep quarters, wider within proportion, than the shoul- 

 ders, that the hinder feet may be farther apart than the fore ; the curve 

 of the hock sufficient to give adequate support to the loins; the pasterns 

 to correspond with the neck and legs, in moderate length and declina- 

 tion, and the toes to point in a direct line. Such are the cardinal points 

 in a Race-horse, and as these prevail, more or less, in proportion will 

 be his speed or his stoutness, in other words, power of continuance. 



When Bourgelat, Saintbel after liim, and some of our English sur- 

 geons, after Saintbel, supposed that the hinder quarters of a Horse were 

 more material to action than the shoulders, they demonstrated an emi- 

 nent want of a few practical lessons at Newmarket. Horses always go 

 with their shoulders. The shoulders of a Race-horse generally narrow 

 to a point at the top of the withers, but we have occasionally, an exam- 

 ple of ihe hare, or greyhound-formed shouldei-, Avhich is of considerable 

 width at the summit. Bracken mentions a good racer, with a shoulder 

 so formed, which ran with its fore legs, as wide as a barn door ; and 

 Eclipse in his flesh, had a shoulder upon which you might have set a 

 firkin of butter. When such shoulders are upright, and so they generally 

 are, they are great impediments to action. Another variation takes 

 place, and far more usually than the former, in the back or waist of the 

 Horse. Some are short, with the round barrel, and close approxima- 

 tion of the ribs and huggon bones, such defect of length being made 

 up in the legs and other parts. Others have their length in tlie waist, 

 with a considerable space between the ribs and bones. Provided strength 

 be supplied by the breadth and substance in the loins, and extent in the 

 haunches, the long shape is probably more conducive to stride and con- 

 tinuance, if not to ready action. The celebrated Motlier jNeesom was 

 a model of this form. The most perfect shape for strength and action, 

 consists in the union of width and depth ; width deci'easing, and depth 



2 H 2 K)iiicwhat 



