THE BACK AND LOINS. 15 



without exception, of the most hollow -backed horses I ever saw, 

 and yet this horse, Captain P. who is 



" A skilful horseman, and a huntsman bred," 



has, over and over again, assured me, was in mud a most capital 

 horse after hounds ; and, indeed, when we came to look at his 

 points — when we perceived that he had loins broad and rounded, 

 haunches fleshy, and thighs down to his hocks, it became no 

 matter of surprise to learn that his powers, in spite of his hollow- 

 ness of back, were so surpassing. Had he been made narrow 

 and tucked-up in his loins, ragged in his hips, flat and thin in his 

 thighs, and weak in his hocks, his hollow back would have proved 

 an additional source of weakness to him, and rendered him, for all 

 purposes where strength was required, all but worthless. 



A short back is well adapted for the support of weight, and, from 

 being combined with, as a sort of kindred make, broad loins and 

 full hind quarters, is, Avith reason, regarded as a mark of strength : 

 but it is disadvantageous for gallopping. It will not admit of any 

 great length in the limbs, for fear of their interfering with one 

 another in action, or of one set over-shooting the other, and there- 

 fore, most wisely, it is combined with short legs, whose two strides 

 amount to little more in extent than one of the long-backed horse's. 

 Consequently, to keep equal pace, one horse must take three or 

 four strides while the other is taking two. The short back is 

 well suited to the dray or cart-horse, in whom we want not speed 

 but strength; and strength not alone to bear burthen, but in draught. 

 In heavy draught, in particular, length of body would prove disad- 

 vantageous to him, from the circumstance of the limbs being re- 

 quired to be longer and farther distant from each other, and from the 

 step being greater than is compatible with the full concentration and 

 co-operation of the bodily powers. The short step of the cart-horse 

 or cob it is which enables him to husband and maintain his powers 

 of strength while in action. A long step would, by the too great 

 call upon those powers, tend to exhaust them ; and, by repetition, 

 render the animal incapable of proceeding with his load. 



I have just observed that when the back is short the loins will 

 be found to be broad and strong — what is called, good ; a circum- 

 stance arising from the circularity of the chest and the breadth of 



