HOW TO KNOW HIM. 61 



back, as his sire, Farmer's Beauty, and his grandsire, 

 Gifford Morgan, had before him. There never was a 

 falser theory, or one calculated to beget more mis- 

 chief among breeders, than this, — that we must breed 

 long-backed colts in order to get length of stride. I 

 have always noticed that the horses long in the back, 

 and loosely coupled at the hips, are the horses that 

 always come to the judges' stand padded and swathed 

 with ''pads" and "shields" and "protectors" enough 

 to stock a small-sized horse- clothing establishment. The 

 reason is, because there is too Httle strength in the back 

 and loins to deliver their strokes in a straight line, or to 

 "catch" quickly and handily when they "break." It is 

 at such a time, — the supreme hour of the animal's life, 

 perhaps, — when fame and money hang evenly in the 

 balance, and ten thousand eyes are watching him, and 

 the horse is going at the top of his speed, that forma- 

 tion, and perfection of organic structure, tell. A,t such 

 an hour I desire no long-backed animal to represent me. 

 And in this connection I would observe, that it is sur- 

 prising that so little attention is paid by breeders and 

 trainers to this matter of strengthening the back. I see 

 no reason why the back of a horse may not, by judicious 

 treatment, be strengthened, as can be done in the case 

 of the man. Dio Lewis will take a weak-backed man, 

 and in two years, yes, in half that time, more than double 

 the strength of his back. He will make a man with a 

 weak back by nature have a strong one. If the muscles 

 in the back of a man can be thus enlarged and developed, 



