368 BLOOD, SYMMETRY AND COMPENSATIONS. 



draught-horse. A heavy head, which reveals but too 

 plainly a cart-strain, is a terrible eyesore to an animal 

 whose neck and shoulders are light, and which might 

 otherwise be a high-class hack. 



We may see weak loins in short-legged, deep-bodied 

 cart-horses which have great power of limbs and shoulders 

 A horse which has oblique shoulders should also have 

 sloping pasterns and a horizontal croup. We must here 

 allow for the fact that "work " often renders the pasterns 

 abnormally upright. We may witness many instances of 

 want of symmetry in the " tying-in " of the legs under 

 the knees, short pasterns, and large, flat feet of long and 

 slender-limbed horses. Fig. 347 shows a mare that was 

 of fine width just below the hock (p. 314), but was tied-in 

 below the knee. A mean carriage of the tail will contrast 

 very unfavourably with a showy and graceful bearing of 

 the head and neck. 



The generic term " weed " is usually applied to long- 

 legged animals which are weak in the loins, and are light in 

 the back ribs. As a rule, the cause of their comparative 

 worthlessness is wrongly attributed to the length of their 

 limbs, rather than to their defects of loin and back ribs. 

 If we compare Fig. 318 with the Frontispiece, we 

 shall see that Epsom Lad is " longer " and " lower " 

 (taking the proportion between his height at the 

 withers and his length of body) than the deep-ribbed 

 and strongly " coupled " Ormonde. It is evident that 

 no amount of shortening of his legs could make his 

 conformation perfect, from a useful point of view. 



Compensations. — The points which I shall consider 

 under this heading have special reference to the saddle- 

 horse and light trapper : — 



" Plainness " of head will be best " carried off " by a 

 " kind," intelUgent expression of face ; quick play of the 

 ears, which appear to most advantage when they are 

 small ; good carriage of the head ; and graceful setting-on 



