46 DETERIORATED CONDITION OF 



only contribute to good action, they do not 

 secure it ; good hind-leg action being quite as 

 important as good fore-leg action. The hock- 

 joints should bend well when in action, bring- 

 ing the hind-feet well forward. All superior 

 horses, whether racers, hunters, hacks, or 

 harness horses, are eminently characterised by 

 fine hind-leg action. Be the shoulders ever 

 so good, unless the action of the hind-legs be 

 also good, a horse is not safe while its paces 

 are uneasy to its rider, and this because the 

 action of the two sets of legs are not properly 

 balanced. Such a horse is unsafe, and makes 

 his rider, if a judge, feel that he is so ; but if 

 the animal's hind and fore-leg action be pro- 

 perly balanced, the rider feels that his horse 

 cannot come down ; and he seems, in this case, 

 to use a dealer's phrase, to be always " riding 

 up hill," while under opposite circumstances 

 he seems to be always " riding down hill." 



Much importance is assigned, and this by 

 judges, to great length between the hips and 

 the hocks. This form, however, carried to the 

 extent it is amongst our race-horses, is wholly 

 factitious, and the pure result of long-con- 

 tinued selection for speed, as exhibited in 



