28 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



should be of reasonable length, but the legs should, at no 

 rate, be long. Much solid flat bone beneath the knee is a 

 great perfection in a hackney; and the feet, standing 

 straight, turning neither in nor outwards, should be of 

 tough, dark, shining horn, the heels wide and open. The 

 saddle-horse's fore-feet should closely approach each other, 

 the wide chest being rather adapted to the collar. Nor 

 need any apprehension be entertained, from this near 

 approximation of the fore feet, of the horse's cutting in 

 the speed, or knocking his pastern joints, since those 

 defects arise almost invariably from the irregular pointing 

 of the toe, inwards or outwards, and for which neither a 

 wide chest, nor the most skilful farriery, has ever yet 

 provided a sufficient remedy. A saddle horse of any 

 description can scarcely go too close before, or too wide 

 behind. 



Perhaps the best pedigree for a road horse for general 

 purposes is, that he should be bred from hackney stock on 

 both sides, more particularly for a trotter. 



In the hackney, says Blaine, " we look with as much 

 anxiety to his fore parts, as we do to the hinder of the 

 racer or hunter ; and as in them the fore parts are rather 

 subordinate to the hinder, so in the hackney, on the 

 contrary, the hind parts may be regarded as of less conse- 

 quence than the fore ; for, though speed is diminished, yet 

 it is subordinate to safety. The head should be small, well 

 placed, and well carried on a neck of due length ; the withers 

 high ; and the shoulders muscular, but not heavy, and above 

 all, they should be deep and obliquely placed. The fore legs 

 must be perfect throughout, and stand straight and well 

 forward under the horse ; and, what in the hunter or racer 

 is of less consequence, is here indispensable, that the elbows 

 should be turned well from the body. The feet also, it is 

 requisite, should be clean, open, and perfect, and the limbs, 

 especially the fore ones, free from all stiffness. The height 

 in the hackney is not so essential as in the racer and 

 hunter; indeed the best hackneys are from 14*3 to 15'1. 

 He should be equally set, without being in the least clumsy ; 

 and with such a form, the more blood he shows, short of 

 full-blood, the better." 



The action of the hack shall be examined when we 

 treat of the paces of the horse, especially the Trot, and 

 the choice of a horse for saddle. 



