i62 COMPARATIVE SHAPE OF HORSES. 



cases, the heel will touch the elbow at about the same place. 

 As the proportion between the length of the fore-arm and 

 cannon bone evidently varies in different horses, a com- 

 paratively long or short forearm must be accompanied by 

 a similar condition of the bones below the fetlock. Lecoq 

 remarks : " The length of the fore-arm varies inversely as 

 that of the cannon bone." I think I may venture to extend 

 this principle somewhat further, in stating the following 

 inverse proportions : — Shoulder blade, long ; humerus (from 

 point of shoulder to elbow), short ; fore-arm, long ; cannon- 

 bone, short ; pastern, long. In other words, a long shoulder 

 blade is accompanied by a long fore-arm and long pastern, 

 and by a short humerus and a short cannon-bone. The 

 converse of this holds equally good. Taking the shoulder 

 blade as the base to start from, we may infer that the differ- 

 ence between these alternate proportions should be best 

 marked in animals, like the hunter or steeple-chaser, which 

 specially require to have this bone of considerable length {see 

 p. 210). It may be objected that the greyhound, which is 

 possessed of extraordinary speed and marvellous jumping 

 powers, has, comparatively speaking, a short shoulder blade 

 and long humerus. Although the length of the latter, which 

 is detached from the body, gives him great forward " reach ; " 

 the shortness of the former makes him too bad a weio^ht- 

 carrier {sec p. 207) for him to be accepted as a model for 

 our purpose. I think we may assume that a similar series of 

 inverse proportions should exist in the hind limb. Thus : 

 pelvis, long ; thigh, short ; tibia (from stiHe to hock), long ; 

 cannon-bone, short ; pastern, long. As the muscles which 

 give length to the tibia are far more concerned in the 

 extension of the hind limb of the jumper and galloper than 



