REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 339 



The legs are straight, at least in the best breeds. If they 

 are in-kneed, or crooked in the fore-legs, it argues a deficiency 

 in blood, and comparative incapacity for work; and not only 

 for work, but for grazing too, for they will be hollow behind 

 the withers, a point for which nothing can compensate, because 

 it takes away so much from the place where good flesh and fat 

 should be thickly laid on, and diminishes the 'capacity of the 

 chest and the power of creating arterial and nutritious blood. 



The fore-arm is particularly large and powerful. It swells 

 out suddenly above the knee, but is soon lost in the substance 

 of the shoulder. Below the knee the bone is small to a very 

 extraordinary degree, indicating a seeming want of strength; 

 but this impression immediately ceases, for the smallness is 

 only in front it is only the bone: the leg is deep, and the 

 sinews are far removed from the bone. It is the leg of the 

 blood-horse, promising both strength and speed. It may per- 

 haps be objected that the leg is a little too long. It would be 

 so in an animal that is destined only to graze; but this is a 

 working animal; and some length of leg is necessary to get 

 him pleasantly and actively over the ground. 



There is a trifling fall behind the withers, but no hollowness, 

 and the line of the back is straight from them to the setting on 

 of the tail. If there is any seeming fault in the beast, it is that 

 the sides are a little too flat. It-will appear, however, that this 

 does not interfere with feeding, while a deep, although some- 

 what flat chest is best adapted for speed. 



Not only is the breast broad and the chest deep, but the two 

 last ribs are particularly bold and prominent, leaving room for 

 the stomachs and other parts concerned in digestion to be fully 

 developed. The hips or buckles are high, and on a level with 

 the back, whether the bi>nst is fat or lean. The hind quarters, 

 or the space from the buckle, to the point of the rump, are par- 

 ticularly long, and well filled up a point likewise of very 

 considerable importance both for grazing and working. It 

 leaves room for flesh in the most valuable part, and, like the 

 extensive and swelling quarters of the blood-horse, indicate 

 much power behind, equally connected with strength and 

 speed. This is an improvement quite of modern date. The 

 fulness here, and the swelling out of the thigh below, are of 

 much more consequence than the prominence of fat which is 

 so much admired on the rump of many prize cattle. 



The setting on of the tail is high; it is on a level with the 

 back; rarely much elevated, and never depressed. This is 

 another great point in the blood-horse, as connected with the 

 perfection of the hind quarters. The tail itself is long and 

 small, and tapering, with a round bunch of hair at the bottom. 



