PROPORTIONS 265 



and you will have a common measure, such as the head 

 would have given you if it had been proportionate.'* 



We understand, up to a certain point, that Bourgelat may 

 have been able to give this advice which, generally speak- 

 ing, is sufficiently practical, since, in certain cases, he was 

 able to pronounce that such a head was too small or too 

 large. But it is always mischievous, with regard to the 

 effect produced on the reader, to propose to him, in the 

 application of a rule, to suppress the foundation on which 

 this rule is estabhshed. Besides, even if all the measure- 

 ments compared with the two-fifths of the length of the body 

 are proportionate with regard to one another, the animal, 

 in spite of this, since the head must be taken into considera 

 tion, will, in a strict sense, be none the less disproportioned. 



The proportions given by Bourgelat are as foUows"}- 

 (Fig. 106) : 



1. Three geometrical lengths of the head give : 



The full height of the horse, reckoned from the forelock 

 to the ground on which he rests, provided that the head be 

 well placed. J 



2. Two heads and a half (B)§ equals : 



The height of the body from the summit of the withers to 

 the ground. 



The length of the same body, those of the forehand and of 

 the hind-quarter taken as a whole from the point of the 

 arm to the point of the buttock inclusive. 



3. An entire head (A) gives : 



The length of the forepart from the summit of the withers 

 to the termination of the neck. 



The height of the shoulders from the summit of the elbow 

 to the top of the withers. 



The thickness of the body from the middle of the belly to 

 the middle of the back. 



The width from one side to the other. 



* Bourgelat, loc. cit., p. 135. | Ibid., p. 136, and onward. 



X By ' the head being well placed,' Bourgelat means ' vertically posed,' 

 the outline of the forehead then coinciding with a vertical line, which at 

 the other end touches the anterior portion of the nose. 



§ The letters in parentheses relate to the corresponding measures 

 marked by the same letters on the third diagram of Fig. 106. 



