LECTURES ON HORSES. 



LECTURE J. 



FORM AND ACTION. 

 " A horse ! a horse ! my kingdom for a horse '" 



WHEN Richard in the heat of battle made use of this soul- 

 stirring exclamation, I take it he wanted a horse with form, and 

 fire, and action, such as England alone, no less perhaps in those 

 days than the present, could furnish him with. In what other 

 part of the world could the Hotspur spirit of Richard have been 

 suited ] or where could he have met with an antagonist well enough 

 mounted to have required such a steed to oppose him with, save in 

 Britain ] Exists there in any other country cavalry equal to our 

 own 1 Can a horse of any foreign breed out-run the English racer I 

 Acknowledgedly in possession of the finest and fleetest horses in 

 the world, is a proof — and a pretty convincing one — that our manage- 

 ment concerning them, in a practical point of view, has attained a 

 degree of eminence of which we may justly feel proud; and yet 

 in veterinary and equestrian literature we appear to be behind 

 France and Germany, and, perhaps, Italy too. We have several 

 modern books on veterinary medicine — we have some on anatomy ; 

 but we lack one on what is commonly called " Exterior Conforma- 

 tion :" this want I propose to use my humble endeavours in the 

 present lectures to supply. 



Animal bodies have been compared to works of art — to ma- 

 chines and engines of various descriptions. Such comparisons, at the 

 same time that they manifest their boundless inferiority to their 

 great prototype, have still had their use in serving to explain 

 and elucidate the structure and operations of that most curious 

 and delicate and wonderful of the productions of Nature, — an 



