HEIGHT AND LENGTH OF BODY. 125 



dispense with a certain amount of strength than can the 

 heavy draught horse attain excellence without a certain 

 amount of speed, even at the walk. ^ I need hardly say that 

 the light vanner belongs to a class intermediate between the 

 light harness horse and the heavy draught horse. 



The method of working from the whole to a part should 

 be followed as rigorously in judging a horse, as in painting or 

 land surveying. If we desire to obtain correctness in these 

 arts, we must, as a rule, first get our general outline, and then 

 fill in the details. If, in our preliminary examination, we 

 allow our eyes to be caught by some isolated beauty or defect, 

 we would be — to use an oft applied simile — like a painter who 

 begins a full-length portrait of a person by drawing the nose, 

 and then hangs the remainder of the body to it I cannot too 

 strongly insist on the fact that the degree of adaptability of 

 an animal for any special kind of useful work, depends more 

 on his general shape, than on the possession or absence of 

 any particular '* point." 



I may mention that, in making comparisons, we should not 

 be disconcerted by the fact that some of the proportions of 

 the horse may vary a little according to the position in which 

 he stands, and the nature of his bodily condition. Some 

 allowance has to be made for the fact, in my illustrations, 

 that the majority of the fast horses and jumpers were taken 

 when they were in hard training ; and most of the heavier 

 horses, when they were in a *^ lusty" state. It would have 

 been more satisfactory, if they had been photographed at a 

 time when they were all in '' hard " condition ; but that, 

 obviously, was out of my power to get done. The method I 

 shall indicate will, however, give results sufficiently uniform 

 for our purpose. We must also remember that the respective 

 proportions of animals of the same class and of equal merit 

 are not always the same , for a defect in one point may be 

 compensated by increased excellence in another point. 



Relations between Height and Length of Body*— 



We have seen, in Chapter L, that the fundamental difference 



