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authority that the Thoroughbred has developed an inch in height 

 in every 25 years since 1700, and with increased height a longer 

 stride and greater speed have resulted. 



Consanguineous breeding, other than the mild form of line- 

 breeding, has not been practised among racehorses, as it is thought 

 to reduce stamina and courage. 



Points of the Thoroughbred. The head should be of pleasing 

 appearance and moderate size, fine, lean, with distinct features, 

 broad between the eyes, and with the line from between the ears 

 to the point of the nose almost straight. A slight divergence by 

 way of elevation in the male and depression in the female is a 

 natural sexual characteristic in a great many cases. The ears 

 should be medium in size, somewhat pointed, not far apart, active 

 and well carried ; the eyes large, prominent, clear and intelligent, 

 brightness indicating vigour of constitution and staying power. 

 The nostrils should be wide, thin and dilatable, pink within, and 

 moist in appearance. The throttle or throat-latch should be light 

 and clean, and the jaw-bones sufficiently wide to accommodate a 

 large windpipe and allow the head to play freely. 



The neck should be long, the upper outline, from withers to poll, 

 sharp, and twice as long as the lower part from shoulder to larynx, 

 strongly muscular and arched, swelling gradually towards the 

 shoulder, and joining the body flatly and smoothly " without any 

 place for the collar." The large windpipe should stand off from 

 the rest of the neck. 



The chest capacity should be large, to ensure staying power, but 

 this is secured better by depth than by great breadth, as it permits 

 freer play of the shoulder and keeps the fore legs more in line 

 with the hind legs. The shoulder should be long, and slope obliquely 

 back to give elasticity and freedom in movement, and to support 

 high, fairly close, long withers. 



The body should be short above and long underneath, somewhat 

 round in type a formation due to ribs which are sprung well from 

 the spine and are close to each other, with a depth at the withers of 

 nearly half the height, and a length equal to the height at withers 

 and croup. The back and loins should be comparatively broad, 

 level, and muscular. A long or slack loin, lacking in muscle, is 

 associated with too much distance between the last rib and the 

 hip-bone, weakness in the coupling, and deficient action. The croup 

 tends to be long, and may be either fairly level with a high-set tail, 

 as with an Arab, or curving gracefully, with a comparatively low-set 

 tail. 



The hind quarters should be long, and the thighs strongly muscled 

 and capable of great driving power ; the gaskins or second thighs 

 broad and prominent, and, viewed from behind, the muscle of the 

 inner thighs should fill the space at this part between the hind 

 limbs. The hind leg ought to be deep and wide at the hocks, clean 

 and free from fleshiness and gumminess, and the point prominent ; 

 the cannon bone short, flat and clean. In looking from the side" at 

 a correctly formed leg " a plumb line from the centre of the hip 

 joint should equally divide the gaskin and the foot ; from the point 

 of the buttock it should run parallel with the line of the cannon, and 

 from behind it should equally divide the hock, cannon, pastern, and 



