EXTERIOR. 43 



Our object is principally to dilate upon what appeals 

 to the eye, i.e. the exterior. It is not absolutely essential 

 that a painter of horses should be a connoisseur in the full 

 acceptation of the term. This can only result from the 

 experience and observation of those who have had many 

 dealings, for useful purposes, with these animals. Practice 

 teaches the qualities, faults, the temperament and the re- 

 sources which can be extracted. 



To summarize : the beauty of a horse depends upon 

 the harmony of its proportions, and the utility upon a 

 robust temperament, a lively adaptable and nervous con- 

 stitution and a docile disposition. 



The artist must judge by the exterior and will especi- 

 ally rely upon regular conformation, proportions and the 

 perpendicular in order to adhere thereto so closely as 

 possible. He will also note the visible blemishes so as to 

 avoid them. Without being a riding master, it is desir- 

 able that he should be a horseman. 



It is seldom that a man, who has never ridden, is 

 capable of giving a due account of the attitudes and the 

 seat of the personages in his compositions. So also with 

 the gaits : frequently the eye of the spectator will be in- 

 convenienced by the lack of harmony without being able 

 to explain the cause. This inconvenience might have been 

 obviated by the artist, had the tenour of his instruction 

 relieved him of all doubt ; for it is evident that if, with 

 the knowledge of the exterior, the artist could also be- 

 come aware of the qualities and defects as well as the 

 temperament and mental faculties which characterize a 

 sound horse, he would attain to a perfection which we are 

 far from exacting from him or his model. 



By exterior is understood the study of the general 

 appearance of the horse, of the component regions and 

 the divers portions of these regions, namely the head, 

 the trunk and the limbs or more correctly the anterior, 

 the body and the posterior, in considering the saddle 

 horse, which is our especial theme. 



The anterior comprises (see fig, i) : — the head (i), 

 the neck (2), the withers (4), the chest (6), the shoulder 

 (2), the arm (5), the fore-arm (19), the elbow (7), the 

 knee (21), the canon (A), the fetlock (24), the pastern, 

 the coronet (M), and the foot (P). 



