THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 167 



like ourselves," continues Colonel Smith, "has repeatedly 

 owed life to the exertions of his horse, in meeting a hostile 

 shock, in swimming across streams, and in passing on the 

 edge of elevated precipices, will feel with us, when con- 

 templating the qualities of this most valuable animal, emo- 

 tions of gratitude and affection which others may not so 

 readily appreciate." 

 The struo- " "^^^ beauty of the form of the horse has often 

 tnre of a been commented upon, his structure is thus admir- 

 Horse. ^-j^^y described by a writer in " Cassell's Magazine 

 of Art" : " His nature is eminently courageous, without ferocity, 

 generous, docile, intelligent, and, if allowed to be so, almost 

 as affectionate as the dog. In his structure, the ruling charac- 

 teristic may be said in one word to consist in obliquity — all 

 the leading bones in his frame are set obliquely, or nearly 

 so, and not at right angles. His head is set on with a subtle 

 curve of the last few vertebrae of the neck, which at the 

 shoulders, take another subtle curve before they become the 

 dorsal vertebrae, or backbone; which end, in their turn, with 

 another curve, forming the tail. His shoulders slope back 

 more than those of other quadrupeds, the scapula, or shoul- 

 der-blade, being oblique to the humerus, which, in its turn, 

 is oblique to the radius, ' or upper part of the fore-leg. So, 

 again, in the hind-quarters, the haunch is set obliquely to the 

 true thigh, the thigh, at the stifle joint, to the upper bone 

 of the hind-leg, which at the hock makes another angle. 

 The fore and hind quarters form so large a portion of the 

 entire length that a horse, though a lengthy animal from the 

 front of the chest to the back of the haunch, is, compara- 

 tively, very short in the actual back or 'saddle-place.' Then 

 his hocks are much bent, and his pastern joints are rather 

 long, and again are set at an angle, succeeded by a slightly 

 different angle in the firm but expanding hoof, thus com- 

 pleting the beautiful mechanism, which preserves the limbs 

 from jar, and ensures elasticity in every part of an animal 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



