EXTERNAL FORMATION. 65 



capable of carrying more than ten stone. The student will do 

 well to study these animals carefully, but it must not be omitted 

 that the portrait of Fisherman was taken after he was thrown out 

 of training. 



The body or trunk is the grand centre of all the muscular pul- 

 lies and bony levers, which are used to move the horse, and it 

 must, therefore, first come under consideration, although, as a 

 matter of convenience, the horseman generally commences with 

 the head. It is quite true that it in turn receives its orders from 

 the brain, as will be hereafter explained, in treating of the nervous 

 system, but as a mere machine it may be regarded independently 

 of that organ altogether. It must, however, be viewed in three 

 different aspects, inasmuch as it has three different offices to per- 

 form. These are, first, to carry its load, and propel it by means 

 of the levers connected with it. Secondly, to afford room for the 

 heart and lungs to perform their functions in its " chest," without 

 interfering with the play of the shoulders ; and, thirdly, to lodge 

 an efficient apparatus of nutrition. The first of these divisions 

 comprehends the back, loins, and croup ; the second is the 

 CHEST ; and the third may be considered under the head of the 



BACK-RIBS, PLANK, AND BELLY. 



The Back, Loins, and Croup of the race-horse, as indeed of 

 all horses but those used exclusively for draught, are generally 

 described as necessarily moulded more or less in the form of an 

 arch. Every architect is aware that this formation is best adapted 

 to carry weight. A straight-backed greyhound is by some expe- 

 rienced coursers, preferred to one which has a slight arch iu that 

 part; but in this animal there is no weight to be carried beyond 

 that of his own carcase, and, therefore, even granting the supe- 

 riority in him of a straight loin (which I do not), there is no 

 analogy between the two animals. Nor do I believe altogether in 

 the received theory which attaches importance to the arched loin, 

 because of its greater capacity for bearing weight from its mechani- 

 cal form. Practically I concede, as an admitted fact, that a horse 

 with this construction of frame will carry weight better than one 

 which has a hollow loin ; but, on examining the skeleton of each, 

 it will be seen that in neither are the bodies of the vertebras in 

 this part of the spine arranged so as to form an arch, or if there 

 is one, it has its concavity, not its convexity upwards, which cer- 

 tainly will not conduce to its weight-bearing powers. The fact 

 really is, that in the arched loin the spinous processes are unusually 

 long, and are raised into a crest like the high withers. By this 

 development of bone an extra space is afforded, for both the lodg- 

 ment and attachment of muscles, and herein is the secret of the 

 extra power. Between the pelvis and the bodies of the vertebrae 

 a true arch is formed, and according to the slope or fall of the 

 6* E 



