THE SKELETON. 17 



dicular line from tlie posterior point of the hip to 

 the ground, and looked at from behind, its position 

 must appear so far outward that the horse looks 

 broader there than in the hips (Fig. 10a). While 

 the haunch and thigh bones are enclosed by volumi- 

 nous muscles, and consequently their outlines can 

 be only indistinctly traced, the position of the lower 

 parts of the leg are easily discernible. 



The leg hone is connected at its upper end with the 

 thigh bone through the stifle-joint, at its lower end 

 with the shank bone through the hock-joint. The 

 leg bone is, likewise, especially in its upper parts, 

 clothed with powerful muscles, which, in connection 

 with those of the thigh bone, are called "the hose." 

 Every bone of great length, and surrounded by mus- 

 cles, has the advantage of the muscles affixing them- 

 selves in larger quantities on the same, therefore 

 adding, through its greater length, to the energy of 

 the motions. The same is the case with the leg 

 bone. The favorable formation of a good thigh 

 bone will, therefore, be completed by a long leg 

 bone. Such a leg bone finds only room under a 

 stifle-joint placed far forward and outward, from 

 which it runs in an oblique direction from forward 

 and outward to backward and inward, to connect in 

 its lower end through the hock joint with the shank 

 bone. The limit to which the leg bone may extend 



