EXTERNAL FORM. Ixxxv 



cal strength, health, and the property of readily assimilating 

 nourishment. In the case of the horse employed entirely in 

 slow labour, the possession of a round wide breast is not only 

 of no detriment, but it is a property to be desired. A cer- 

 tain width of breast is desirable, but in a less degree, in 

 the hackney and common saddle-horse, in which the power 

 of speed is held to be secondary to other properties. In 

 the hunter it should exist to a medium extent, and it is 

 only in the race-horse that we can afford to regard it as 

 a secondary property ; yet even in the race-horse, although 

 too great a width of breast is to be deprecated as utterly 

 imsuited to his destination, we still desire to see the chest 

 expand gradually to behind the shoulders, so that its capa- 

 city shall be sufficient for the action of the respiratory organs. 



The ribs, rising from the vertebrae of the back, increase in 

 length until the ninth, and in curvature to the last, so that 

 the body gradually passes from the elliptical form, and be- 

 comes nearly circular. The ribs should possess the proper 

 degree of curvature, so that the sides shall not be flat, and 

 the body narrow. A horse having the body narrow is said to 

 be flat- sided, and has frequently the belly pendent, because the 

 abdominal viscera have not sufficient space laterally. Such 

 a horse never possesses endurance, and rarely good action. 



The head of the horse should be symmetrical, and rather 

 small than large, a large head not conducing to any pur- 

 poses of active motion, and frequently indicating sluggish- 

 ness of temper, and coarseness in other parts. Yet the 

 mere difference in the size of heads of horses of the same 

 race is not a very important character, and, other points 

 being good, may be disregarded. A certain breadth and 

 height of forehead, however, indicates the horse of high 

 breeding, and may be supposed to be connected with greater 

 sagacity and spirit. 



The ears should be free from coarseness. The spirit of 

 the animal is judged of by these parts being pointed, and 



