86 THE HUNTER. 



he may be required ; and although we have occa- 

 sionally seen hunters with light thighs carry weight 

 well, we never have seen it so carried by horses de- 

 ficient in their arms. 



If sportsmen were to see the knee of the horse 

 dissected, they would pay more attention to the 

 form and substance of it than they generally do. 

 It is a very complicated joint, but so beautifully 

 constructed that it is seldom subject to internal 

 injury. Its width and breadth, however, when 

 considerable, are great recommendations to hunters, 

 as admitting space for the attachment of muscles, 

 and for the accumulation of ligamentous expansions 

 and bands, greatly conducive to strength. Below 

 the knee is a point on which we will not say much 

 here, as we have already alluded to it in our re- 

 marks on the race-horse. We mean the shank, or 

 cannon bone, and its appendages. It can scarcely 

 be too short in a horse that has to carry a heavy 

 man ; round legs are almost sure to fail ; those of 

 the hunter should be flat, with the back sinews 

 strong, detached, and well braced. This consti- 

 tutes what sportsmen call a " wiry leg."" 



The fetlock is also a complicated joint, and very 

 liable to injury. In a hunter, it should be large 

 and strong. But as regards his action, the pastern 

 is still more material, and also to his standing 

 sound. Very few horses with short pasterns can 

 go well in deep ground, and for this obvious rea- 

 son — the action of the joint is destroyed by get- 

 ting below the surface of the ground, and is of 

 course sooner immersed than when it is longer. 



