34 THE HORSE. 



adds to the cavity of the chest both behind and below, 

 at the same time that it throws the girths of the saddle 

 far back, into a comfortable position. A shaUow- 

 chested horse may answer a very good purpose over a 

 half-mile com-se, where speed is of much more conse- 

 quence than bottom ; but he would have a poor chance, 

 in a four mile race, with such horses as Harkaway, 

 Chanticleer, Van Tromp, and the Flying Dutchman, 

 whose unmense chests would enable them to go a good 

 pace from end to end without getting out of wind. No 

 shallow-chested horse, it matters not what his speed 

 might be, could live with any of these over a long 

 com-se, with heavy weights. If these remai'ks are 

 coiTCct regarding the flat racer, they surely are equally 

 applicable to the hunter and steeple-chaser, who are 

 frequently obliged to go over several miles of heavy 

 country, at one burst, with such weights, and at such a 

 pace, as would be sufficient to test the wind of the best 

 horse that ever stepped on ii'on. 



Before leaving this part of my subject, I may just 

 state that, according to my observation, the best way 

 to ascertam the condition of a horse's lungs is, to take 

 him fresh from the stable and run him quickly down, 

 not up, a hill. The pressm-e of the liver, stomach and 

 bowels, through the diaphragm, on the lungs, will 

 very soon tell, by the presence or absence of a cough 

 or a sneeze, " what way the wind blows." The ordi- 

 nary method of running him up the hill may be a 



