140 HORSEMANSHIP FOR WOMEN. 



The Arabs have a proverb that " there should be four 

 points of. a horse long, four short, and four broad." The 

 long are the neck, the forearm, the thigh, and the belly; 

 the short are the back, the pastern, the tail, and the ear; 

 the broad are the forehead, the chest, the croup, and the 

 limbs. The head should be small and bony ; that of 

 an English thorough-bred of fifteen and three-quarter 

 hands will measure twenty-two to twenty-four inches in 

 length, with the forehead eight to ten inches broad, the 

 face dishing below the eyes. The withers should be 

 high, the shoulder as broad as possible — not fleshy, but 

 bony — and lying at an angle of about forty-five degrees. 

 The chest should be broad and deep, to give room for 

 lungs and heart. The knees should be broad, the hoofs 

 large, and not flat, but deep. 



The reasons for some of the above recommendations 

 may be made clearer by a rough comparison between 

 the frame of the horse and that of man. For instance, 

 the shoulder of the former, from the withers to its for- 

 ward point at the joint, is equivalent to the shoulder- 

 blade and collar-bone of the latter, and a broad shoulder 

 is as sure an indication of strength in the one as in the 

 other. If the horse is "short above and long below," it 

 gives him a carriage similar to that of a man with a 

 full, broad chest, who holds his head high and his shoul- 

 ders back. 



The knee of the horse corresponds to the human 

 wrist, and his hock,ov " back knee," as the children call 



