MUSCLES. 13 



exertion he may be called upon to undergo. In the cart-horse, 

 on the contrary, thickness of muscle is the great desideratum, 

 always supposing that he has sufficient activity to walk well 

 and on occasion to trot at a moderately brisk rate. As a thin 

 muscle will contract at least as quickly as a thick one of the 

 same length, it follows that an increase in the thickness of 

 muscles is useful only in making the work more easy, and 

 that it does not otherwise add to the speed. Massive 

 muscles, compared to slight ones, have two disadvantages, 

 namely — they add to the weight to be carried, both in muscle 

 and bone ; and they necessitate the possession of large 

 joints, which, from increased friction, are not so easily bent 

 and extended as smaller ones ; besides this, it has been 

 proved that they do not respond as quickly to nervous 

 stimulus. Although it is impossible to lay down any exact 

 rules on this subject, we may say, speaking generally, that 

 the thickness of muscle which would be commendable in a 

 weight-carrying hunter, would be quite out of place in a race- 

 horse. We may often observe that horses which were very 

 smart as two-year-olds, lose their ' ' form " after that age with- 

 out any assignable reason, except that as they "thickened," 

 they got slow. I may remark that those speedy animals, the 

 cheetah, greyhound, and antelope, like the race-horse, are 

 comparatively narrow behind, and that the hind-quarters of 

 the cart-horse are very wide. As the great tendency among 

 English thoroughbreds is to undue lightness of bone and 

 muscle, we generally find that our best race-horses are com- 

 paratively strong animals ; although the muscles of their 

 legs are always long, and they have little or no approach to 

 coarseness of limb, Ormonde, St. Gatien, Bendigo, Isonomy, 

 Barcaldine, and Carbine (the New Zealand son of Musket), 



