THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 585 



formed racer. It is hardly necessary to add, that the 

 tnighs must be muscular in the extreme, the hock 

 broad, and, like the knee, it should be placed low down 

 in the limb : the hinder pasterns, like those before, 

 should be long and oblique, but with strength sufficient 

 to combat the strain on them. 



The hunter of the present day is totally a different 

 animal to what he was fifty years ago. To follow hounds 

 of every kind, as they are now bred, the hunter should 

 be but one, or at the most two, removes from a full- 

 bred horse : some now in use are altogether full-bred. 

 Consequently the selection of a hunter, under the pre- 

 sent system, combines the qualities of speed met with 

 in the racer, with as much additional bone, muscle, and 

 extended form altogether, as will enable him to carry 

 more weight, and support it during a long course of 

 fatigue and privation. Therefore wdth the following 

 form, the more of those qualities that usually accom- 

 pany what is called full-blood, the better : the breed 

 yielding the speed and determination, and the form 

 providing for the appHcation of these quaUties to the 

 purposes of the rider. 



To the hunter it is essential that he be elevated in his 

 fore-hand, and possess a sufficient length of neck to 

 enable him, in his long-continued gallops, to bring the 

 whole of the air-passages, from the nostril to the chest, 

 into a straight line nearly, which will greatly assist him 

 in long and severe bursts. It is essential also to good 

 wind, as pointed out in the form of the racer, that his 

 chest be deep and more circular than narrow; and 

 equally so, that he may have digestive capacity with- 

 out clumsiness. His arms must be muscular, and 

 his flexor tendons should stand out from his knee, and 

 proceed wide and flat down the whole of his canon : 

 and as in the hunter, flexibility must, in some degree, 



4f 



