354 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



croup, and a very oblique shoulder are elements indispensable to the velocity of 

 the gait ; now, increase these beauties of the forearm and the leg in an exaggerated 

 degree and you will make your horse taller ; do the same thing with the croup 

 and the shoulder, you will lengthen his body, and if you do not develop in the 

 same proportion the chest, the abdomen, the neck, the head, the articulations, etc., 

 you will have made, according to your fancy or talent, a giraffe, a dromedary, or 

 an elephant, but you will no longer have a horse, — that is to say, a special motor 

 adapted to our needs, to our civilization ; because you will have destroyed the 

 pre-existing harmony of the regions. That is what M. Richard has misunderstood, 

 and which caused him not only to disregard the opinions of Bourgelat, but also 

 to shower upon him those harsh criticisms which fell with equal force upon his 

 followers, the members of the Board of Education. 



Here are, besides, some extracts which abundantly prove that we have not 

 exaggerated his thoughts : 



"The model horse of Bourgelat, constructed in accordance with his method, cannot fulfil 

 the conditions required by reason and by a good locomotor. How, indeed, can we accept limits 

 to the development of certain regions, especially when the very excesses would always and without 

 exception be a desirable beauty f How is it possible to limit the width of the forehead, the height 

 of the cranium, the development of the withers, the height of the chest, that of the shoulders, 

 or their obliquity ? Shall we ever find a fetlock or a forearm that is too wide, the latter too long, 

 a knee too much developed, a tendon too neatly outlined ? Can we fix the limits to the width of 

 the hock, to that of the leg, to the length of the croup and that of the ribs? 



"He who wishes to study the horse according to his destination will be convinced, as we 

 are, that it is contrary to reason to establish by arbitrary measures {there can be no others) limits to 

 the development of such or such region of his body. We understand perfectly that the artist 

 should have data to direct him in the perfection of his work, the forms of which are regulated 

 by taste and fashion, but the mechanic must obey only the laws of mechanics; he can judge of 

 the qualities of the machine only from the invariable rules upon which these laws are 

 established." 



And still further : 



" Physiology and mechanics united, in accordance with the observation of facts, teach us 

 that a square head is generally beautiful. Its masticating muscles are usually quite prominent. 

 Its nostrils are very mobile, very wide, very dilatable. Large eyes, wide open, bright, and placed 

 low, a large forehead, and a well-developed cranium are its characteristics. Such a head is 

 always to be recommended, whatever may otherwise be the indications of the proportions, which prove 

 absolutely notliing if they are contrary to beauty. If, on the other hand, a horse has his neck well 

 muscled, to execute well all the movements, without an excess of fatty or cellular tissue ; if he 

 has very high withers, and here we know no limits ; if he has a short back and short loins, very 

 wide and with strong muscles; if his croup is long and well muscled, high and well-inclined 

 shoulders; if the chest is very deep and the ribs long, well arched, and rounded ; if the flank is 

 short, the forearm very long and wide ; if the knee is strong, the tendon extremely detached, the 

 fetlock wide, the pastern short and of the desired degree of Inclination ; if the buttock.s are 

 prominent and furnished with strong, long, well-marked and well-descended muscles ; if the leg 

 and the hock are wide, w7ia^c!'er may be the excess uf their width, take no account of proportions whose 

 value nothing justifies ; you will always be sure of having found the model horse." 



M. Richard does not perceive, in the two quotations which we have just 

 made, that, more than all others, he has the idea of proportions, the name of 

 which irritates him so much. He speaks of the excess of certain beauties, with- 

 out thinking that the excess of things is judged only by comparing them with 

 one another, or by appreciating how they exceed the dimensions and the mean 

 limits which they ordinarily possess. If that particular thing cannot be too wide, 

 or this one too long, it follows that another one can be right, or even too narrow 

 and too small. Now, the excess, the sufficiency, and the deficiency are qualities 



