vertical femur, with a relatively short, and consequently 

 a more or less upright tibia, will by the very power of 

 his principal propulsive lever be a hard puller if he is 

 spirited in character and, if on the other hand, the cor- 

 rect placing- of his forward radii causes him no anxiety 

 upon the equilibrium of his forehand, and if it permits 

 him strongly to attack the wrists of his rider. 



" Pull on him as if you were trying to pull a tree 

 down," Henry Jennings used to say to his exercise boys. 



And, in fact, the horses of that period, built for stayers, 

 were very much harder pullers than those of the present 

 time, be this said without in the least approving of 

 equestrian advice given by the old trainer. 



The horse with a relatively short, sloping femur (if 

 fastened to a sloping croup), with a relatively long and 

 consequently oblique tibia, has not a lever of the same 

 power for struggling against the hand of his rider, and 

 consequently he will pull less. 



These observations had not escaped Lord Apperley 

 (Nimrod), the author of highly valued studies on the 

 hunter, of which M. Ollivier, Inspector-General of Studs, 

 has given us interesting extracts in his " Notes sur le 

 cheval de selle." Unfortunately a certain amount of 

 attention is necessary for the understanding of the text, 

 as Nimrod is constantly confusing the terms thigh and 

 leg. 



" A horse with short, upright and weak thighs," said 

 Nimrod, " or simply with short and upright thighs, can- 

 not be a good hunter. He can never be balanced in his 

 gallop, nor can he be assembled in front of the jump, and 

 he is almost certainly a hard puller. Horses with hind- 

 legs too straight never have a good mouth." 



What proves that everything that Nimrod says 

 above is applicable to the leg and not to the thigh is the 

 fact that he immediately adds : " Consequently a long 

 and muscular thigh, with a clear cut and well-placed 



57 



