808 



FIG. 330. Hippometer with 

 pedestal. 



THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



horse with the open 

 hand, allowing four 

 inches to each hand. 

 Thus, a horse five feet 

 WMUW..^.,,^,,,;,*** six inches in height is 

 16.2 hands high. 



Not very long ago 

 horse - dealers em- 

 ployed another measure equivalent to the 

 chain. The whip, whose handle had a deter- 

 mined length, was provided with a plaited 

 lash or a strip of leather which was knotted 

 at known intervals. To use it, the handle 

 was suspended at the level of the anterior 

 member, its extremity touching the ground, 

 and with the lash the contour of the arm and 

 the shoulder was followed to the most elevated 

 part of the withers. 



The whip is subject to the same inaccu- 

 racy as the chain : it measures the height only 

 approximately, making the latter too great in 

 wide-chested, fat, and muscular animals, and 

 the reverse in others. 



The tape-measure, like the preceding 

 methods, and for analogous reasons, also gives 

 inaccurate results. 



The toise is an ancient measure of length 

 whose value was six French feet (6.39459 

 feet), but which has been disused since Jan- 

 uary 1, 1840, when the metric system was 

 adopted. It served to determine the height 

 of man and of animals. At present, this 

 name is improperly given to the double metre, 

 which has replaced the former. 



To measure the height of the horse more 

 accurately we use various instruments, known 

 under the generic name hippometers, whose 

 form varies, but which are all constructed 

 after the same principle. They are composed 

 of a vertical rod about two metres in length, 

 graduated in centimetres and sometimes in 



