256 THE HORSK* 



expansion of the chest, or the legs sufficiently wide^ apart, to leave 

 room for the play of the lungs ; but depth more than roundness of chest is 

 here required, because the deep chest admits of most expansion, when 

 the horse, in rapid action, and the circulation proportionally quickened, 

 needs more room to breathe : yet if the breast be too wide, there will be 

 considerable weight thrown before, and the horse will be heavy in the hand, 

 and unsafe. 



Whether the legs are near to each other or v»^ide apart, they should be 

 straight. The elbow should not have the slightest inclination inward or 

 outward. Tf it inclines towards the ribs, its action will be confined, and 

 the le<v will be thrown outward when in motion, and describe a curious 

 and awkward curve ; and this will give a peculiar rolling motion, unplea- 

 sant to the rider and unsafe to the animal. The toe will likewise be 

 turned outward, which will not only prevent the foot from coming flat on 

 the ground in its descent, but be usually accompanied by cutting, even 

 more certainly than when the toe turns inward. If the elbow is turned out- 

 ward, the toes will necessarily be turned inward, which is a great unsight- 

 liness, and to a certain degree injurious. The weight cannot be perfectly 

 distributed over the foot ; the bearing cannot be true ; there will be undue 

 pressure on the inner quarter, a tendency to unsafeness, and a disposition 

 to splint and corn. The legs should come down perpendicularly from the 

 elbow. If they incline backward and under the horse, there is undue 

 stress on the extensor muscles ; and the legs being brought nearer the 

 centre of gravity, undue weight is thrown forward, and the horse 

 is liable to knuckle over and become unsafe ; if the legs have a direction 

 forward, the flexor muscles are strained, and the action of the horse is awk- 

 ward and confined. The toe should be found precisely under the point of 

 the shoulder. If it be a little more forward, the horse will probably be 

 deficient in action ; if it be more under the horse, unsafeness will be added 

 to still ffreater defect in going. 



Chapter XIV. 

 tHK HIND LEGS. 



THE HAUNCH. 



In describing the hinder extremities, we must begin with the bones of the 

 launch. The haunch (see O, p. 63, and the cut, p. 230) is composed of 

 three bones. The first is the ilium, principally concerned in the formation 

 of the haunch. Its extended branches behind the flanks are prominent in 

 every horse ; and when they are more than usually wide, the animal is said 

 to be ragged-hipped. A branch runs up to the spine at the commence- 

 ment of the sacral vertebrre E, and here the haunch-bones are firmly united 

 with the bones of the spine. The ischium, or hip-bone, is behind and 

 below the ilium. Its tuberosities or prominences are seen under the tail, 

 (cut, p. 63). The pubis unites with the two former below and behind, 

 t From the loins to the setting on of the tail, the line should be carried on 

 almost straight, or rounded only in a very slight degree. Thus the haunch- 

 bones will be most oblique, and will produce a corresponding obliquity, or 

 slanting direction in the thigh-bone — a direction in which, as we stated when 

 describing the fore-legs, the muscles act with most advantage. This direc- 



