6 PURCHASING FROM THE STABLES. 



pense in some degree for a slight droop in the croup ; 

 but great thigh-muscle, added to a long and straight 

 croup, is the make for the turf. A large hinder chan- 

 nel, from the anus downwards, caused by the muscles 

 projecting, and being well asunder, is another good 

 point, and much admired : it is a sign of great endur- 

 ance. 



The stifle, and all that below it, must be broad and 

 strikingly muscular : he must be what is termed well 

 let down in the thighs, plenty of muscle inside the 

 thigh as well as outside, never hare-hammed ; and the 

 muscle just above the outside of the hock, in parti- 

 cular, should be large/* Some horses are accounted 

 too long in the haunches, forcing them off at full 

 speed, but this is not against their running well. 

 These three points, the quarter, thigh, and stifle, show 

 the blood of a horse quite as much as the head, eye, 

 and jaw. A muscular and elegantly dropped hind 

 leg, having a fine elastic spring, is far more difficult 

 to find than a casty head. 



THE HOCKS AND THE HIND PARTS PROOF OF HALF 

 THE BREEDING. 



The hock of a fresh unworked Arab is generally 

 beautifully formed, and clean, and particularly excel- 

 ling in the hind projecting bone at the point. You 

 must never expect a runner in one who is glaringly 

 deficient in this point. The hock should be broad also 

 from side to side ; the bone at -the upper inner part 



* The part a little below the stifle being narrow and wanting nmscle. See 

 Frontispiece. 



