154 COMPARATIVE SHAPE OF HORSES. 



which they are put. The difference here is one of thickness, 

 and not of length. I have often noticed among thoroughbred 

 AustraHan and New Zealand stock, that they became coarse 

 and lost their appearance of blood if kept under rough con- 

 ditions and used for ordinary hack work. 



I may mention that St. Gatien, the celebrated son of The 

 Rover and St. Editha, who ran a dead heat with Harvester 

 for the Derby of 1884, won the gold cup at Ascot and the 

 Cesarewitch (carrying the unprecedented weight of eight 

 stone ten pounds for a colt of his age) in the same year, was 

 a very deep-chested horse, as his depth from his withers to 

 his brisket (just behind the elbow) was an inch more than 

 from his brisket to the bottom of his fetlock. He was thus 

 an inch deeper than Ormonde, who was one and three-quarter 

 inches deeper than St. Simon. St. Gatien, I need hardly 

 say, was particularly distinguished by his ability to stay a 

 distance. 



Length and Depth of Body. — We may advance a step 

 further in our search after the true principles of horse confor- 

 mation ; for if we compare the proportions of the body of the 

 racer with those of the heavy draught animal, we shall find 

 that they are essentially the same, and that the only real 

 difference which exists between these two classes is in the 

 length of their legs. Were those of Ormonde, as he is in the 

 Frontispiece, cut down nine or ten inches and proportionately 

 thickened, and were he swelled out by "bulky" food, he 

 would pass fairly well as a cart-horse ! The statement which 

 I have just made concerning the comparative proportions of 

 the two extreme types of horses, may not appear so out- 

 rageous as it might do at first glance, if we consider that the 



