2O Present Varieties of the Horse. 



until he has arrived at mature age, and is taken out of 

 training. The bones below the hock should be flat and 

 free from adhesions; the ligaments and tendons fully 

 developed, and standing out free from the bone ; and the 

 joints well formed and wide, yet without any diseased 

 enlargement; the pasterns should be moderately long 

 and oblique ; the bones of good size ; and lastly, the feet 

 should correspond with those already alluded to in the 

 anterior extremity. 



The totality of these points should be in proportion to 

 one another that is to say, the formation of the horse 

 should be " true." He should not have long well deve- 

 loped hind-quarters, with an upright, weak, or confined 

 fore-quarter. Nor will the converse serve ; for however 

 well formed the shoulder may be, the horse will not go 

 well unless he has a similar formation in the propellers. 

 It is of great importance, therefore, that the race horse 

 should have all his various points in true relative develop- 

 ment, and that there shall not be the hind-quarter of a 

 long racing-like horse with the thick confined shoulder 

 which would suit a stride less reaching in its nature. 



THE COLOUR, SKIN, HAIR, ETC. 



The colour of the thorough-bred horse is now generally 

 bay, brown, or chestnut, one or other of which will occur 

 in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. Grey is not com- 

 mon, but sometimes appears, as in the recent case of 

 Chanticleer and some of his stock. Black also occasion- 

 ally makes its appearance, but not more frequently than 

 grey. Roans, duns, sorrels, &c., are now quite exploded, 

 and the above five colours may be said to complete the 

 list of colours seen on the race-course. Sometimes these 

 colours are mixed with a good deal of white, in the shape 

 of blazes on the face, or white legs and feet ; or even both 

 may occur, and the horse may have little more than his 

 body of a brown, bay, or chestnut. Most people, however, 

 prefer the self colour, with as little white as possible ; and 

 nothing but the great success of a horse's stock would 

 induce breeders to resort to him if they were largely 

 endowed with white. Grey hairs mixed in the coat, as in 



