SCOPE AND VALUE OF MEASUREMENT. 75 



measure of speed, but it is an indicator of the adaptation of part 

 to part, and this adaptation not only affects the question of the ease 

 and readiness with which a given gait is chosen, but also the speed and 

 capacity for endurance at that way of going. 



As I said above, all horsemen measure a horse as soon as they 

 see him, in some way or other. We inquire his height — his weight 

 very often. I don't stop here when I desire to reach clear ideas of 

 the stature and composition of a horse; I inquire as to his breeding. 

 If this is shown satisfactorily, I then want to know how each blood 

 force has operated in his make-up, and what are his methods and 

 capacities. 



I want to know his front-leg action, and for this I inspect or 

 measure his forearm and front cannon; I then want to know his 

 action of the rear extremities, and when I know his exact length 

 from hip to hock and his length of thigh, my eye and my knowledge 

 of his elements as disclosed in his breeding and apparent conformation 

 give me the rest. I understand him as a trotter as to all that pertains 

 to his way of going, and if I am mistaken as to his real merits it is 

 not because I don't understand his anatomy. 



It was at one time asserted that Dexter was son of Sayer's Harry 

 Clay, and many tongues and several pens engaged in the controversy, 

 which the tape-line could have determined with absolute precision; 

 for no son of Harry Clay, of Dexter's size, ever had a length from 

 hip to hock of less than 40 to 42 inches, while Dexter's 39 inches is 

 the exact length of nearly every son or daughter of Hambletonian 

 from a Star mare. This same test, and the uniformity with which it 

 is found in the descendants of Abdallah, point with decisive authority 

 to the blood of both the sire and dam of that distinguished progenitor, 

 and with equal weight corroborate the evidences collaterally supplied 

 as to the dam of Mambrino Chief. In all this field its aids are both 

 valuable and interesting; but as throwing light on the question of 

 whether a horse is or is not a trotter, its importance must not be 

 exaggerated. The fact of his blood and trotting character being estab- 

 lished, it affords much light on the way in which he will trot, and to 

 this extent, of his capacity and quality. In addition to all that can be 

 learned from this source in regard to the conformation and physical 

 qualities of the trotting horse, much will remain that can only be 

 comprehended by the practical eye of experience, and which no art or 

 rule or system of anatomy can or will divulge. 



The peculiarities of the various blood traits and their increasing 



