404 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



and resistance to fatigue), etc. All these expressions serve to character- 

 ize such or such a feature of the conformation or the moral qualities of 

 well-bred animals ; they are frequently employed, and it is important 

 to know them in order that they may be used and understood in the 

 acceptation which custom has given them. 



CHAPTER II. 



ISOLATED EFFECTS OF BEAUTIFUL PROPORTIONS UPON THE ANIMAL 



MACHINE. 



IN the preceding chapter we have passed in review the four prin- 

 cipal aspects under which it is important to study the proportions. 

 We have analyzed, in a static state or repose, the details, the locomotory 

 machinery, the machine as a whole, as well as the animating principle 

 which regulates its action. Now, we have to study the same machine 

 with regard to the individual eifects which it is susceptible of pro- 

 ducing, according to the particular combination of the elements which 

 enters into its organization. 



In this respect Professor Sanson l says, " The actual work which it 

 accomplishes is utilized according to two general modes. The displace- 

 ment of mass which performs this work is effected either at the slow 

 gait of the walk or the fast gaits of the trot and the gallop. To ab- 

 breviate, we will name the first work en mode de masse, or force, and 

 the second work en mode de vitesse, or speed. In the one as in the other 

 of these two modes, the burden to be transported may be a mass dis- 

 posed indifferently upon the back of the motor, or upon a vehicle to 

 which this motor is attached and which he pulls." 



We must therefore determine what characters of the external con- 

 formation should be sought for to choose in the best conditions the 

 horse destined to work either in the mode of force or in the mode of 

 speed, or in these two modes at the same time. We shall also have to 

 say a few words concerning the manner in which the nervous force, the 

 excitability, is distributed in each of these motors, and of its useful or 

 harmful influence upon the final result, according to its degree of 

 richness. 



A. Sanson, Traite de zootechnie, 2e <d., t. iii. p. 324. 



