472 NAMES OF EXTERNAL PARTS. 



The dock (R) is the solid part of the tail. 



The height of a horse (A B, Fig. 148) is the vertical 

 distance of the highest point of his withers from the 

 ground, when he is standing with his fore legs nearly 

 vertical and with the points of his hocks in a vertical 

 line with the points of his buttocks. I have qualified 

 ''vertical" by "nearly" when referring to the fore 

 legs ; for when the hind legs are placed as in Fig. 147, 

 the weight of the head and neck, which are in front of 

 the fore legs, would cause the animal to stand some- 

 what " over." When a pony is being measured for 

 polo or racing, his legs should be placed in the position 

 I have described, although his head may be lowered 

 until his crest is parallel with the ground. 



The length of the body of a horse (D E, Fig. 148), 

 may be assumed as the horizontal distance from the 

 front of the chest to a line dropped vertically from 

 the point of the buttock. This measurement is a 

 somewhat arbitrary one, but it is probably the best 

 for the purpose. French writers generally take the 

 length of a horse as the distance from the point of 

 the shoulder to the point of the buttock. As this is 

 not a horizontal measurement, I prefer to it the one 

 just given. 



The depth of the chest at the withers (A C, Fig. 148) 

 is the vertical distance from the top of the withers to 

 the bottom of the chest. This measurement being 

 taken for convenience sake is an arbitrary one, be- 

 cause the chest is lower between the fore legs than 

 behind the elbow, which is the spot I have selected. 



