STUDIES 



ON 



THE GAITS, EXTERIOR, 



AND 



PROPORTIONS OF THE HORSE. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The man who busies himself about art, ought never to 

 evoke in the mind of the spectator an inaccurate recol- 

 lection for which he will remain responsible. 



If I have been able, after a long course of obser- 

 vations upon horses, to give some useful information to 

 those who love them and busy themselves about them ; 

 and after I have confronted the aridity of a mathematical 

 treatise by measuring a very great number of these 

 animals, both in Asia and Africa, where they live in the 

 manner most conformable to their nature, I can affirm 

 that a measurement on a living animal is never strictly 

 applicable, any more than a perfectly regular movement 

 is produced by a consistent manner. I am therefore far 

 from advising the geometrical construction of the horse. 



My sole aim is to forewarn artists against the ridicu- 

 lous mobility of limbs and the fantastic dislocations, 

 detrimental alike to the vitality and the action, which 

 custom perpetually imposes upon animals as the trans- 

 lation of the most simple gaits. 



