THE RACE HORSE. 1 I 



horse that has his back a little low or hollow. As 

 a saddle horse, this may be all very well, but for 

 a race horse, to have strength and liberty of 

 stride, his back should be straight and moderately 

 long, with the shoulders and loins runing well in at 

 each end. The loins should have great breadth 

 and muscular substance, so much so as for them to 

 have the appearance of being raised as it were on 

 their surface; and those muscles posterior to the 

 loins should fill up level the top part of the quar- 

 ters to the setting on of the tail, which latter 

 should be set on pretty high up, and in its com- 

 mencement should extend a little out from the 

 quarters, hanging straight down to near the hocks. 

 At Newmarket, in my time, such tails were called 

 the " Bunbury switches." Bye-the-bye, there is a 

 part under the tail, of which, as I am now so near it, 

 and as it is a point of some importance, it may not 

 be out of place to give a short description : — the 

 anus, or fundament, should contract into a small 

 compass, nor should there appear much, or, in- 

 deed, scarcely any space round its surrounding 

 sides; for this is a part that should be small, 

 close, and well formed in all descriptions of horses. 

 The muscles by which it is surrounded should 

 be contracted into small folds ; nor can the main 

 sphincter muscle act too powerfully in contract- 



