SECTION SECOND. 



STUDY OF THE REGIONS. 



1. DIVISIONS OF THE HORSE. 



MOST authors who have written upon the exterior, since Bourgelat, 

 have adopted the division of the horse into fore extremity, body, and 

 hind extremity ; others have preferred the anatomical division into 

 trunk and members. All have acted under the influence of three good 

 reasons. 



Horsemen, with Bourgelat, have only considered the saddle-horse, 

 and have regarded it as a machine under the rider, extending beyond 

 him, in front and behind. For all those who practise horsemanship, 

 the rider in the management of his mount has two resistances to over- 

 come, two parts to direct : the fore part, that is to say, all that part 

 of the horse in front of him, and the hind part, all that which is 

 behind. The body is under him, he feels its action directly, and it 

 cannot escape him. It is not thus with the fore and the hind parts, 

 whose movements are often far from being correlative, and upon which 

 he should fix his attention. 



The authors who have preferred, contrary to the preceding, the 

 division of the horse into trunk and members, quickly perceived that the 

 division of Bourgelat, whilst applying itself very well to the service 

 of the saddle, becomes defective when applied to the heavy or the light 

 draught-horse. It would be useless to insist upon this point. The 

 contradiction in the terms is still greater when it becomes a question 

 of studying the external conformation of other domestic animals, such 

 as the ox, the sheep, and the dog. 



We will adopt the following division, because it is more general 

 and more convenient, and because this book is not alone addressed to 

 horsemen. 



Whatever may be the animal examined, or its service, it may always 



21 



