212 



GOOD QUALITIES. 



[CH. XIII. 



with, but one companion, before they thought of defini- 

 tively purchasing. 



364. The good qualities of a horse being principally derived from 

 nature, a judge can pretty accurately discover his general capabilities 

 simply by a glance at his make and action ; but the good qualities 

 of a sportsman's dog are chiefly derived from art ; consequently, 

 though his movements may be light and springy, his countenance 

 intelligent, his nostrils wide, his cerebral development large, 

 his forehand deep, his ribs round and full, his elbows well de- 

 tached from them, not tied in, his shoulders high, and slanting 

 backwards, his loins muscular and arched, his quarters lengthy, 

 and sinewy, his legs bony, and straight, his feet small and round, 

 pointing direct to the front, his tail taper to the finest point from 

 a strong root,* yet if he has been improperly shot over as a young- 



* The continuation of the ver- 

 tebrse of the back, and clearly, 

 therefore, an indication of their 

 substance. Query Was it because 

 our grandfathers knew that a tail 

 naturally short was a pledge of 

 stamina, that they endeavoured 

 to imitate it by docking their 

 horses and pointers? Curiously 

 enough, the points named in 364 

 as desirable in a dog are considered 

 good in a horse. In portraits of 

 the useful old English hunter, you 

 never see a feeble, flexible neck, 

 it is desirable that it should be 

 arched, a dog's neck also should 

 be sufficiently strong, and put on 

 high. Neither horse nor dog should 

 should have large fleshy heads, 

 and a full bright eye is in both a 

 sign of spirit and endurance. The 

 canon bone in a horse should be 

 short, so ought the corresponding 

 bone of a dog's leg ; and every 

 joint ought to be large, yet clean ; 

 and (without a bull) the short ribs 

 in both animals should be long. 

 There are hardy horses whose flesh 

 you cannot bring down without 

 an amount of work that is inju- 

 rious to their legs, there are also 

 thrifty dogs which are constantly 

 too fat, unless they are almost 

 starved, and common sense tells us 

 they cannot be so starved without 



their strength being much reduced. 

 The analogy does not hold with 

 respect to ears, for it is generally 

 considered that the dog's should 

 be soft and drooping, lying close 

 to his head not short and ever in 

 motion. Moreover, most men 

 would wish his muzzle to be broad 

 as well as long. 



Our eye is so accustomed to the 

 sight of weeds, animals bred for 

 short-lived speed, not for en- 

 durance, that we no longer look 

 for, and possibly do not properly 

 appreciate, the short back (though 

 long body), with scarcely room for 

 a saddle ; and the width between 

 the upper part of the shoulder- 

 blades (as well as the lower) the 

 indication of space within upon 

 which points our forefathers justly 

 set great value. We forget it's 

 being mentioned of Eclipse, whose 

 endurance is as undeniable as his 

 speed, that he had a "shoulder 

 broad enough to carry a firkin of 

 butter," and that Stubb's por- 

 traits of winners (of races four 

 and occasionally six miles long !) 

 show that they possessed power- 

 fully muscular, as well as slanting 

 shoulders. The frame of a clever 

 Welsh, or New Forest pony, if his 

 head is set on at a considerable 

 angle with his neck, is perfection. 



