480 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



rump. The dealers fig all Horses indiscrimi- 

 nately, which we think is injudicious, for those 

 who naturally carry a good tail, come under 

 the same suspicion as those who may be really 

 figged to answer the dealer's purpose. Fiery 

 and spirited hackneys seldom require nicking. 

 Hackneys are often called cock-tails from this 

 circumstance, in contradistinction to those of 

 the thorough-bred, who never carry any but 

 a drooping-tail. A cocked-tail would be in- 

 compatible with a blood-quarter ; hence it is 

 that blood-horses should never be figged or 

 nicked. 



The quarters may be full, small, or fine and 

 blood-like. Full quarters are such as are 

 possessed by cart-horses, large machiners, and 

 hackneys able to carry weight. These Horses 

 are wide in the hips, though their hips are 

 but indistinctly marked, in consequence of 

 being enveloped by large, coarse, and flabby 

 muscles. People are too apt to regard wide 

 hips as an objectionable point, from their 

 giving to the Horse that appearance called 

 ragged hips ; which, indeed, are not only ugly, 

 but denote bad conformation, though of them- 

 selves they denote good make ; for the fact is, 

 that ragged hips are produced by a bad loin, 

 and a lank, flat, and weak quarters. Were 

 these parts well formed, the hips might be 

 pronounced of the best description. The 

 small quarter is one that is often seen in a 

 Horse of this form ; though the general con- 

 tour of it may be regular and uniform, it is 

 altogether disproportionately small when com- 

 pared with the carcass. If it grows narrow 

 towards the hinder part, the animal is said to 

 be goose-rumped. Of all other structures, 

 the blood-like quarter is the best adapted for 

 speed. In the blood-horse, the tail is set on, 

 Iiigh up, and the hips are high and prominent, 



but not ragged ; so that many of our best 

 racers are higher behind than before, the 

 spaces between them and the points of the 

 quarters great, as are also those between the 

 latter parts and the stifles. The haunches 

 want the plump and round appearance of the 

 full quarter; but so far from either beine 

 lank or thin, they are striped with bold and 

 prominent muscles, which being free from 

 the adipose and cellular substance, that con- 

 stitute the flabbiness of those of the full quar- 

 ter, are so distinct, even through the skin, 

 that we can distinguish where one ends and 

 another begins. The stifles should project 

 boldly forwards, and have a perceptible irregu- 

 larity of surface. The thighs are good, when 

 long, thick, and muscular. The hock, of all 

 other parts in the racer, is of the utmost im- 

 portance ; it should be broad, flat, and of 

 large dimensions. The propulsion of the ma- 

 chine is eflected chiefly by those muscles that 

 are attached to the point of the hock ; so that 

 the more this projects, the greater the force 

 they can exert, simply on the principle of the 

 lever. The half-bred horse, with good hocks, 

 possesses the same advantage in hunting, as 

 the racer does on the turf. The point of the 

 hock, as we have before observed, cannot 

 stand out too much ; indeed the greater its 

 dimensions, altogether, the better; provided 

 it be not gummy, or that its various bony pro- 

 jections and sinewy parts be distinctly seen or 

 felt. If the hock is narrow, its point round, 

 and not well defined, it is said to be straight; 

 and, from its being liable to curbs, is called a 

 curby hock : should its point be directed in- 

 wards, and the toes turned outwards, the Horse 

 is said to be cow-hocked, or cat-hammed. 

 As this is a part very liable to disease, as 

 well as to original mal-formation, the nicest 



