THE SIRE. 121 



from under the sulky with a twitch, and shoot them 

 ahead as the arrow is shot out of a bow, is not in them. 

 Select a stallion short in the upper line, and long in the 

 lower line, strongly coupled over the hips, and the dis- 

 tance between the hip-bones and spine-bone swelling 

 with ridges and masses of muscle that you can see play 

 and work like great pulleys when taking their exercise, 

 and you will get colts from him that will stride far, and 

 gather like lightning. As to the height and size, I say 

 unhesitatingly, that the perfect horse in these respects is 

 one that stands fifteen hands and two inches high (sixty- 

 two inches), and weighs ten hundred and fifty pounds. 

 This is the standard of perfection ; an inch either way in 

 height, or fifty pounds in weight, is allowable : but for 

 speed and endurance, for the purposes of general driv- 

 ing, and for the track, and, therefore, for the purposes 

 of breeding, no stallion should weigh less than a thou- 

 sand, or more than eleven hundred pounds; neither 

 should he stand higher than sixty-three inches, nor 

 lower than sixty. It used to be thought, that for the 

 purposes of the track, and in order to be good weight- 

 pullers, large-sized horses were indispensable ; but when 

 men saw Flora Temple, barely tipping eight hundred 

 pounds, pull the same weight as the great stallion 

 George M. Patchen, and get her nose in at the wire 

 a little quicker than he could, heat after heat, they had 

 to go back on their favorite theory. Theory and specu- 

 lation are excellent in their place and way ; but they 

 are useless when put over against the logic of facts; 



