DISTRIBUTION OF WEIGHT. 15 



" turned out." Even our best domestic horses have the very 

 serious fault that they are unable to stand continued fast 

 work without incurring a high degree of liability to injury of 

 the limbs, and particularly of the fore legs. Hence, ordinary 

 riders have the double duty of exercising judgment as to the 

 amount of work their mounts can bear with safety, and of 

 performing to the best advantage in the saddle. Jockeys, on 

 the other hand, are as a rule solely concerned in trying to be 

 the first to get to the winning post without paying any con- 

 sideration to the chance of their horses breaking down. 



General Morris of the French army (Essai sur Fextirieur du 

 chevat), showed by experiment that an unmounted horse 

 weighing 850 Ibs. and standing in an ordinary position, 

 carried about 54^ p^r cent, of its entire weight on the 

 fore legs, and about 45 ^ per cent, on the hind ones ; 

 but that when mounted by a ten stone rider, who sat in 

 an ordinary upright attitude, and in a saddle placed in the 

 usual position, the respective percentages were about 56 and 

 44. It is evident that the lighter the rider, the less would 

 his presence in the saddle alter the natural distribution of 

 weight between the fore and hind legs, other things being 

 equal. As experience teaches us that the fore legs of saddle 

 horses, as a great rule, wear out quicker than their hind legs, 

 we might at fir^t conclude that this inequality, as regards 

 susceptibility to injury, is due to the presence of the rider 

 causing a larger proportion of weight to be carried by the 

 fore legs than is natural. Speed has, however, a far greater 

 influence in this respect, as we may see by the immensely 

 large percentage of flat-race horses that break down in front 

 during training and when running, as compared to hunters 

 which have to accomplish much longer distances and to carry 

 far heavier weights, but at slower speed. I make this remark 

 with due allowance for the fact that race-horses are put to 

 work at a much earlier age than hunters. 



