80 FORM AND ACTION. 



ters would have given them increased gallopping speed, but they 

 could, with the augmented stride, neither have carried the required 

 weight nor maintained the stability and firmness of step requisite 

 for heavy draught, and, therefore, they would not have proved so 

 valuable either upon the road or in the field. On this account the 

 short -quartered horse is often to be preferred to the lengthy one, 

 even for the purposes of hunting ; though, of course, should there 

 be found — as nowadays there often is, from our extensive increase 

 of blood — lengthy quarters possessing the requisite strength, they 

 will in the field surpass all the cocktails*. Still, do the latter 

 retain one advantage over the blood-horse : with their short and 

 strengthy quarters, they commonly inherit powers of leaping, and 

 cleverness in getting over awkward places, for which the long 

 greyhound-like quarter of the racer seems ill adapted. The same 

 remark may likewise be made in respect to the manege : horses 

 with racing-like quarters never perform so cleverly with their 

 haunches as others ; they have difficulty in getting their haunches 

 under them, and from extreme elasticity, manifest " weakness" in 

 them, on which account thorough-breds rarely turn out accom- 

 plished military chargers. We know that Irish hunters are pro- 

 verbially good leapers ; and they are remarkable for their short, 

 high-rumped, any thing but handsome, quarters : withal, however, 

 they perform wonders in jumping, particularly in the hunting field, 

 and this they are enabled to do from great breadth and shortness, 

 combined with uncommon muscularity of the hind quarters. 



The cart or dray-horse, the cob, the hackney to carry weight, 

 are all valued the more for their large, rotund, plump quarters. 

 Lank or lengthy quarters, such as would be admired in a racer, 

 are, in these horses, detractive from their worth and beauty ; as 

 much, in fact, out of character, as round and full quarters would be 

 upon a race-horse. This shews how necessary it is, before we pro- 

 nounce on the aptitude or inaptitude of these parts, to first deter- 

 mine the breed of the animal, or for what purpose he is intended. 

 The quarters may be " good" of the kind, and yet of a character 

 unsuitable to the breed or make of the horse, or they may be of a 

 description in keeping with the breed and conformation of the 



* Half-bred horses, with short round quarters, from their tails being car- 

 ried erect, are commonly so called. 



