54 THE RACE-nOESE. 



variation of fleetness corroborates our assertion, 

 that the virtue of what is termed blood is me- 

 chanical, or, what is the same thing, that the ex- 

 cellence of all horses is mechanical, and that the 

 smallest deviation from a true formation of the 

 acting parts operates so powerfully as to render 

 them, under certain exertions, nearly valueless. 



Wind. — It is true, " speed wins the race ;'' but 

 to make it available to the race-horse, it must be 

 accompanied by endurance, or " bottom." A great 

 promoter of this is clear wind, or freedom of re- 

 spiration, the want of which makes the war-horse 

 rebel in the manege, the hunter run into his 

 fences, the draught-horse fall, as if he were shot, 

 and the racer either stop, or bolt out of the course. 

 In fact, when the organs of respiration are fatigued, 

 all animals are nearly powerless. The cause of 

 good wind may be distinguishable to the eye, and 

 arises chiefly from depth in the forequarters, which 

 implies a capacious thorax or chest. However wide 

 a horse may be in his foreparts, he will not be 

 good-winded unless he is, at the same time, deep. 

 But still wind in the race-horse depends on some- 

 thing more, on the nature of his constituent and 

 component parts, which, if in proper proportion, 

 impart to him strength and agility, giving him 

 that easy action which will not readily fatigue 

 these organs of respiration ; and so enable him to 

 run on, when others, less gifted by nature than 

 himself, are forced to slacken pace. The good 

 effect of clear wind in a race-horse is in fact two- 



