THE HORSE. 



353 



that it is (ipt to cliafe from tlio saJille. The loins 

 ,aru a jjoiul thai we ohould alwaya bu nici; about. 

 A IujHuw back and a iwirroio loin aro generally 

 indicative ot natural weakness; but the latter 

 is lar more exceptionuble than the Ibrnier : a 

 horse so lornied can seldom carry much vveif,'ht, 

 Boon knocks up. and ol'ien proves a bad feeder : 

 his co.islaiit huLlon'iu:<s in the Hank, and hxal/ink 

 appearance altogether, al'ier a day's hunting, 

 domonbtrate how incapable he is ol bearing llie 

 exertions reiiuired ol liira. 



The 'Mil, in regard to the manner in which it 

 is se' on, is not to be overlooked : a horse that 

 cai'ries In-o good cnda (of which the head forms 

 one, and the tail the otlier,) always louk< grand 

 — ix a pcifecl genUcmiiii in his appe iraiice. 

 Above all others, the charger should possess this 

 poiut iu perfection, to coincide with the grarid- 

 cur of kit carr/a^e in the ostentatious parade of 

 a field-day. Hnic beHalor cquus campo seae 

 ardans iiifcrt. The tail, in most horses, should 

 form, when elevated, a straight line, or nearly 

 so, with the back. A gentle declivity of the 

 croup, however, from the summit of the rump, 

 denotes the blood-likc quarter, and adds much 

 grace to this part in the thorough bred : should 

 this line decline very much, the hor.'^e is said to 

 be droop-arscd, and the <piarters lose much of 

 their beauty as well as their natural power. 

 Nothing is so ugly, in aJ'ullquarUred h irse, as 

 to see the tail set on low down, issuing abruptly 

 from the rump as if a Irroomat'c k hod been 

 stuck in the p'ace. The dealers who indiscrim- 

 inately fig all, often spoil tlic sale of a horse of 

 this description by curling tlu: /ail upward with 

 a doiC of ginger. Some horses carry a good 

 tail naturally — others, by means of art having 

 undergone tl>e operation called nicking. Gin- 

 gery OT peppery hackneys seldom require nick- 

 ing ; indeed, hackneys are often called, from 

 this circumstance, cocktails, in contradistinction 

 to Lkoroagh-bredi, who seldom or never carry 

 any but a drooping tail, better known by the 

 name of blood-iail ; a cocked-tail would be in- 

 compatible with a blood-quarter : hence it is 

 that blood-horses should 7icver be Jigged, or 

 nicked. 



The quartert may he full, small, or fine and 

 blood tike. Full quarters are such as are pos- 

 sessed by carthorses, large machine-horses, and 

 hackneys able to carry great weight. These 

 horses are wide in the hips, though their hips 

 are but indistinctly marked, in consequence of 

 being enveloped by large, coarse, fiabby mus- 

 ■oles. People are too apt to regard wide hips as 

 an objectionable point, from their giving to the 

 horse that appearance called ragged liips, which, 

 indeed, are not ouly ugly, but denote bad con- 

 formation, though, of themselves, they denote 

 good make ; for the fact is that ragged kips are 

 produced by a bad loin, and a lank, flat and 

 weak quarter. Were these parts well formed, 

 we should pronounce the hips to be of the best 

 description. The small quarter is one that is 

 often seen in a horse of this form ; though the 

 general contour of it may be regular and uni- 

 form, it is a<together disproportionately small 

 when compared with the carca.ss: if it grows 

 narrow toward the hinder part, the animal is 

 often said to be goose-rumpcd. But, of all other 

 Btruotures, the blood-like quarter is the best 

 adapted for speed : in it the tail is set on high 

 vp, and t!)j hips au high and prominent, but 

 not ragged; so that many of our best racers are 

 higher behind than before the spaces between 

 tliem and the points of the quarters great, aa are 

 also those between the latter parts and the sti- 



(737) as 



Hes; the haunches want the ■pbimpnc^x and 

 roundness of the full quarter; but, co far from 

 being either lank or llun, arc striped with bold 

 and prominent mufclet, which, being free from 

 the adipose and ce.Hular subslnnce that consti- 

 tutes the fahlrincss of those of the full quarter, 

 arc so distinct, even through the skin, that we 

 can distinguish where one ends and another be- 

 gins. The stilles should pyojcrl boldly forward, 

 and have a perceptible irregularity of surface. 

 The thighs are good, when long, thick and mus- 

 cular ; little hillorki, or rotundities, upon them, 

 mark the coursi! of muscles, and always denote 

 great power; the nearer the angles which they 

 tbrm with the parts above and below approach 

 to right angles, the more force tlie muscles can 

 exert; ergo, the more powerful the horse. The 

 hock, of ail other parts is in the racer of the ut- 

 most importance ; it should be broad, flal, and 

 of large dimensions. The propulsion of the 

 machine is efTectcd chiefly by those muscles that 

 an; attached to the point of the hock ; so that 

 the more projecting this is, the greater the force 

 they can exert, simply on the principle of the 

 lever: as a man with a long oar can row with 

 more facility and ett'ect than he who uses the 

 short one, or scull, so can a horse with broad, 

 projecting hocks get over the ground with com- 

 parative ease to himself, and pleasure to his 

 rider. The advantages the half bred hor.se with 

 good hocks possesses as a hunter, are of no lesg 

 moment than those a good hock confers upon 

 the racer : his great propelling powers will en- 

 able him to clear his raspers* with so much 

 grace that the rider will find it a difficult matter 

 to prmnd him,\ and empowers hiai to make suck 

 play in the mud as will soon sew up his lank- 

 Ihghed Rwii straight-hocked competitors. The 

 point of the hock cannot stand out too much; 

 indeed, the greater its dimensions, altogether, 

 the better, provided it be not ^(/wmy, or that its 

 various bony projections and sinewy parts be 

 distinctly seen or felt. li^the hock is narrow, 

 its point round, and not well defined, it is said 

 to be straight, and, from being very liable to 

 curbs, is often called a curby-lu>ck : should its 

 point be directed inward, and the toes turned 

 outward, the horse is cow-hocked, or cat ham med. 

 As this is a part very liable to defect, as well as 

 to original malformation, the nicest examina- 

 tion is required to detect all that may prove dis- 

 advantageous or injurious to its function, the 

 proper performance of which is of so much im- 

 portance that the propulsion of the whole ma- 

 chine depends chiefly upon it, 



Rkmarks on the Purchasf, or a Horse. — 

 Having selected a hor.se whose make and shape 

 please us, our next consideration is his sound- 

 ness; for, though the horse-dealer may declare 

 that he is as sound as a bell, we are to take the 

 phrase as one having various meanings, and not 

 be deteiTcd from examining him, and narrowly, 

 too, on that account. Sight, u-ind, and limb, 

 must be the uppermost objects of inquiry ; for 

 nine hundred horses out of a thousand are de- 

 fective in one of these particulars. First, then, 

 examine his eyes, and do this before he comes 

 nut of the stable. Having placed him so that 

 the light may fall upon the eyes but in one di- 

 rection, .see that they are of the same size, and 

 equally full ; thai the haws arc not prominent, 

 and that one does not proji-ct more than the 

 other; that the eyes are perfectly clear and 



* Rasper, a high and dangerous leap. 



* Surrounded by inaccesaU/U ratpen. 



