110 ON THE HORSE IN GENERAL. 



I (hall now (after a few preliminary remarks) 

 prefent the reader with a general defcription 

 of the external conformation of the Horfe, 

 grounded, I conceive, upon juft principles of 

 theory, and confirmed by experience. By a 

 general defcription, I would be underftood to 

 intend fuch an one, as is equally applicable 

 to the racer, and the. cart-horfe ; the particulars 

 wherein they differ, will be explained in the 

 courfe of the work, under the diftincl heads. 

 In laying down certain rules, as the ftandard 

 of beauty and proportion in Horfes, human 

 judgment has, no doubt, been guided by the 

 obfervation of the beft natural models ; thefe 

 have been originally furnifhed by the courfers 

 of Arabia, according to all hiftory and tradi- 

 tion, the oldefl breed in the world, and proved, 

 from all experience, to be the beft (haped. I 

 have already obferved upon the ingenuity of 

 thofe geometrical rules and calculations, adopt- 

 ed in the French veterinary fchools, for the 

 purpofe of fixing a ftandard of juft proportions 

 for the Horfe ; and had I room to fpare, I 

 fhould borrow them of Saintbel, who has freely 

 borrowed of other authors, both French and 

 Englifh ; but it does not come within my plan 

 to be fo mathematically exact. 



The head of a Horse fhould be void of 

 flefh, and for length and lize, appear to holdfair 

 proportion with the lize of his bodv ; his eye 



full. 



