CHAPTER XL 



IF you chance to wish to own a horse for 

 parade,ss a high-stepper and of showy 

 action, such quahties are not, as a rule, to be 

 found in every horse, but he must have, to 

 start with, the natural gifts of high spirit and 

 strong body. Some people fancy that if a 

 horse has supple legs, it follows that he will 

 be able to rear his body on them ; but this is 

 not the fact. It is the horse with supple 

 loins, and short and strong ones too, that 

 can do this. I do not mean the loins at the 

 tail, but at the belly, between the ribs and 



