BooKVrr. ORGANOLOGY OF THE HORSE. 885 



would have gone upon a pavement by choice, in preference to a softer road." {Observations on Live 

 Stocfc,p.o5.) 



612 



5576. The galloway {b), so called from its being found chiefly in that province of Scotland, has now 

 become very rare ; it is a little horse, of much the same size with the former, or rather larger ; the breed 

 having been neglected from its unfitness for the preseni labors of agriculture. The true galloways are 

 said to resemble the Spanish horses ; and there is a tradition, that some of the latter, that had escaped 

 from one of the vessels of the Armada, wrecked on the coast of Galloway, were allowed to intermix with 

 the native race. Such of this breed as have been preserved in any degree of purity, are of a light bay 

 or brown color, with black legs, and are easily distinguished by the smallness of their head and neck, 

 and the clearness of their bone. 



5577. The still smaller horses of the Highlands and isles qf Scotland, (c) are distinguished from 

 larger breeds by the several appellations of ponies, shelties, and in Gaelic of garrons or gcarroHS. They 

 are reared in great numbers in the Hebrides, or western isles, where they are found in the greatest 

 purity. Different varieties of the same race are spread over all the Highland district, and the northern 

 isles. This ancient breed is supposed to have been introduced into Scotland from Scandinavia, when the 

 Norwegians and Danes first obtained a fooling in these parts. " Tt is precisely the same breed that 

 subsists at present in Norway, the Feroe Isles, and Iceland, and is totally distinct from every thing of 

 horse kind on the continent of Europe, south of the Baltic. In confirmation of this, there is one 

 peculiar variety of the horse in the Highlands, that deserves to be noticed : it is there called the eel. 

 backed horse. He is of different colors, hght bay, dun, and sometimes cream-colored ; but has always 

 a blackish list that runs along the ridge of the back, from the shoulder to the rump, which has a 



resemblance to an eel stretched out. This very singular character subsists also in many of the horses of 



""ilker's Hebrides, vol. i\. i^. 158.) "The Higl" 

 sometimes only nine, and seldom twelve hands high, excepting in some of the southern of the Hebrides, 



Norway, and is no where else known." {Walker's Hebrides, vol. W. i^. 158.) "The Highland horse is 



where the size has been raised to thirteen or fourteen hands by selection and better feeding. The best of 

 this breed are handsomely shaped, have small legs, large manes, little neat heads, and are extremely 

 active and hardy. The common colors are grey, bay, and black ; the last is the favorite one." {General 

 Report of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 176.) 



Sect. II. Organology or exterior Anatomy of the Horse. 



5578. A just knowledge of the exterior conformation of the horse, to l)e able to 

 form a correct judgment of the relative qualities of the animal, forms the ne plus 

 ultra of a scientific horseman's aim ; but it is a branch of knowledge not to be ob- 

 tained without much study and experience. In considering a horse exteriorly, his 

 age, his condition, and other circumstances should be attended to ; and without which 

 attention it is not possible to determine, with precision, the present or future state of a 

 horse when he is seen' under various peculiarities. A horse of five years old, though 

 considered as full grown, yet experiences very considerable alterations of form after that 

 period. He then becomes what is termed furnished ; and all his points, before hidden in 

 the plumpness of youth, now shew themselves. He is, in fact, more angular, and in a 

 painter's eye would be more picturesque, but less beautiful. A horse likewise low in 

 flesh and condition, is hardly the same animal as one in full flesh and condition; and 

 again, the sleekness acquired from relaxed labor, with full and gross feeding, is very 

 unlike the robust form acquired from generous diet with correspondent exertion. 



5579. The examination of the subject of organology is conveniently pursued by dividing 

 it into head, neck, trunk, or body, and extremities or legs. The greater number of well 

 proportioned horses, with the exception of the head and neck, come within a quadrangle; 

 but not one strictly equilateral as depicted by Lawrence (llichardj, and Clark, but 

 one whose horizontal dimensions are usually between a twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth 

 greater than their perpendiculars. It must, however, be kept in mind, that with some 

 considerable deviations from this quadrangular form, many horses have proved superiorly 

 gifted in their powers ; and that a deviation from these proportions, appears in some 

 instances^ as in tliat of the race horse, not only favorable, but necessary also to his exer- 

 tions. Nature will not be limited, and the perfection of her operations is not alone de- 

 pendant on an arbitrary arrangement of parts, but on a harmony and accordance of the 

 whole, internal as well as external. To the artist, however, such admeasurement is 

 useful, inasmuch as it prevents any sihgular departure from a symmetrical appearance, 

 which is but too common among our animal draughtsmen. To the amateur it also 

 offers a convenient, though not an tinerring guide. Our exemplification of the organ- 

 ology appears by placing a blood and a cart horse within the same square [fig. 61^], by 

 which the differences between the various parts of the one and the other are readily con- 

 trasted. 



3 L 3 



