THE CARRIAGE-HORSE. 55 



the knee and the fetlock. The feet should be neither large 

 nor small for the size of the animal ; the fore hoofs should 

 form an angle of about fifty degrees with the ground, the hind 

 feet being slightly more upright. If the feet are too straight 

 it may be found that they are contracted. The back should 

 be straight and short, the loins large and muscular, the quarters 

 long and well let down, not short, round, and drooping ; the 

 hock clean, well defined, and so placed as to come into the 

 direct line through which the weight of the quarter is thrown. 

 The hocks should be quite straight, neither turning outwards 

 nor towards each other ; the hind legs below the hock as 

 straight as the fore-leg. The middle of the side of the fore-arm 

 should be in a line with the back of the heel ; and it should be 

 possible to draw a line from the middle of the front of the fore- 

 arm down the middle of the knee to the middle of the hoof. 



Very few gentlemen now drive a cabriolet, and of those who 

 do fewer still have a really perfect ' cab ' horse, an animal which 

 was once eagerly sought for. In shape he was supposed to 

 be nearly faultless, to stand not less than sixteen hands high, 

 and to have action which could hardly be too extravagant. 

 It was a purely ornamental possession, usefulness being left 

 out of the quesiion. A man who desired such a luxury did 

 not care much what price he paid. It is the most expensive 

 of single-harness horses. 



The chariot-horse often stands sixteen and a half or seven- 

 teen hands high, and for colour bay or brown is usually pre- 

 ferred. The purchaser may expect to be told that they have 

 been bred in Yorkshire, but a great number of them come 

 from abroad. The London dealers obtain many of them from 

 Mecklenburg, North Germany, Antwerp and its neighbourhood. 

 These horses have much improved during the last few years, 

 and it is now difficult to tell them from home-bred ones. In- 

 formation as to them is very difficult to obtain ; for it is, of 

 course, to the dealers' interests to keep their history as dark as 

 possible - but they do not possess the stamina that distinguishes 

 the English-bred horse. 



