FORM OF THE RACER. 43 



over the blossoms, which in one night blasts all 

 former hopes of a crop. 



A most interesting event to a breeder of tho- 

 rough-bred stock is the trial of their racing powers, 

 which at once decides the question of their being 

 worth the expense of training to run or not. There 

 is a great deal of judgment necessary in the act of 

 trying even old horses, but still more is required to 

 form a just estimate of a young one, from the diffi- 

 culty of knowing when he is quite up to the mark, 

 as well as of keeping him there till it may be con- 

 venient to try him ; — and it is not always so, 

 owing to bad weather, the trial of young things 

 being generally very early in the year. This sub- 

 ject, however, coming more properly under the 

 head of Training the Race -horse, will be treated of 

 at a future time. 



But we have not yet spoken of the form of the 

 race-horse, which we will now describe ; and as 

 nothing can be considered characteristic of a species 

 but what is perfect of its sort, we will so far endea- 

 vour to make the pen perform the task of the pen- 

 cil, as to portray his cardinal points, as nearly per- 

 fect as such means will admit of. Nature herself, 

 perhaps, rarely exhibits perfect models in the ani- 

 mal world, leaving the completion of her skill to 

 human sagacity ; neither is undeviating symmetry 

 absolutely necessary in a race-horse. In every 

 composite, however, beauty consists in the apt con- 

 nexion of its parts with each other, and just pro- 

 portions in the limbs and moving levers, coupled 

 with that elegance of form iii ichich there is no 



