POINTS TO BE REGARDED. 99 



their action is apt to be too straight and near the ground. 

 When, however, they do take to trotting, they make the 

 best trotters in the world ; as they invariably, and they 

 only, make the best gallopers. 



The points of the physical structure of a horse on which 

 Ihe most, indeed the whole of his utility depends, are hia 

 legs. Without his locomoters, all the rest, however beau- 

 tiful it may be, is nothing worth. Therefore, to these we 

 look the first. The fore shoulder should be long, obliquely 

 set, with a considerable slope, high in the withers and their 

 above. The upper arm should be very long and muscu- 

 lar ; the knee broad, flat and bony ; the shank or cannon 

 bone, as short as niay be, flat, not round, with clean, firm 

 sinews ; the pastern joints moderately long and oblique, 

 but not too much so, as the excess produces springynesa 

 and weakness; the hoofs firm, erect, or deep, as opposed 

 to flat ; and the feet generally large and round. In the 

 hind legs, the quarters should be large, powerful, broad, 

 when looked at in profile, and square and solid from be- 

 hind. The hams should be sickle-shaped, not straight, 

 and well let down, so as to bring the houghs well toward 

 the ground. The houghs should be large and bony, 

 straight, not angular or convexly curved in their posterior 

 o'ltlines ; the shanks corresponding to the cannon bones, 

 short and flat ; and the hind feet Bimilar in form to the 

 front. The back should b^ short above, from the point 

 of the withers and shoulder-blade, which ought to run 

 well back to the croup. The bnrre] should be round, and 

 for a horse in which strength and quickness are looked to 

 more than great speed and stride, closely ribbed up. A 

 horse can scarcely be too deep from the top of his shouh 

 der to the intersection of liis fore leg — which is called the 

 heart-place — or too wide in the chest, as room in these 

 parts gives free play to the most important vitals. The 



