SECRETARY'S REPORT. 163 



reaching stride, and this form is favorable for speed and easy 

 movement ; but, if the shank bone be long, the horse will step 

 higher and shorter and have more showy, prancing action. 



The pasterns should be moderately long and sloping, since 

 they are the springs provided to break the force of the concus- 

 sion when the feet strike the ground. Many of our American 

 horses have pasterns too short, upright and stiff, and are con- 

 sequently soon ruined by fast driving. 



The feet should be of smooth, firm horn, round, smallish, 

 low and open at the heel, and with a large, elastic frog. The 

 form and substance of the foot vary much in different breeds, 

 so that a perfectly natural, and healthy and durable foot upon 

 a horse of one kind may have the appearance of a badly dis- 

 eased foot upon a different breed. Thus, a high-bred, nervous, 

 fine-boned horse is very apt to have a small, upright hoof, 

 with narrow heels and a shrivelled, hard frog, while a coarse, 

 large-boned horse will have large, flat feet, low, and often tender 

 heels, and an immense, soft frog. 



The hind-quarter of the model roadster must be long from 

 the point of the hip back to the buttock and down to the stifle, 

 and heavily muscled both upon the outside and between the 

 thighs. The stifle should be well forward, and the second 

 thigh, or the leg just below the stifle, should be well furnished. 

 The hocks should be low, broad, deep and bony, and not too 

 crooked, because less elegant and more liable to strains. The 

 point of the hock, as well as the point of the elbow on the fore 

 leg, should be largely developed for the sake of the increased 

 leverage thus afforded to the muscles acting upon them. 



The four shank bones should be nearly perpendicular when 

 the horse is standing still, and when he is moving at a moderate 

 speed they should be carried straight forward without any 

 swinging from side to side either of the feet or of the body. 

 Horses remarkable for swiftness, either as trotters or galloppers, 

 spread their hind legs when going rapidly, and some do so at 

 an ordinary pace. This is an evidence of strength but has an 

 awkward appearance, except where the hind feet are carried 

 past the fore feet by the length of the stride, when the obvious 

 utility of the motion renders it beautiful. It is important also 

 to observe that the fore legs should be so joined to the body that 

 the feet are neither turned in nor out ; since cither of these 



