HEIGHT AT WITHERS AND CROUP, 131 



With regard to this point, we may study Ormonde (Frontis- 

 piece) and Persimmon (Fig. 322). Could a horse be reserved 

 for races up-hill, like on the old Cambridgeshire course, 

 which finished at ''the top of the town,'^ increased height 

 at the withers might be an advantage ; but such a policy 

 would hardly be practicable. We may conclude from the 

 foregoing remarks, that if a race-horse be higher over the 

 croup than at the withers, he will require, all the more, to 

 have sloping shoulders, oblique pasterns and powerful loins, 

 and to be light in his head,^ neck and shoulders. 



We have now to consider the very practical question — 

 which, no doubt, every man who goes in for pony racing 

 has asked himself — is it an advantage for a pony which has 

 to pass the standard at a certain height, to be considerably 

 higher over the croup than at the withers ? The results of 

 my experience make me reply **no'* to this query. The 

 statement, which I have often heard urged, that a pony 

 which measures, say, 14.3 over the croup, and which can 

 pass the standard at fourteen hands, must have a '' pull " 

 over others of its own class which are as high at their 

 withers as over their croup, is not borne out in practice. 

 The best racing ponies I have seen, had no great difference 

 between these two measurements — certainly not more than two 

 inches. Among this list I may mention • the English ponies, 

 Predominant (Fig. 236), Lord Clyde, Water-lily (Fig. 332), 

 Maythorne, Mike (Fig. 235), St. Helena, Selena, and Sylvia, 

 the New Zealanders, Little Wonder and Parekaretu ; the 

 Australians, Mayflower, Achievement, Chester, Bob, and 

 Jeannette ; the Arabs, Caliph, Little Hercules, Blitz (Fig. 

 370), and Sweet William ; the Barb, Kangaroo ; the Indian 

 country-breds. Ruby, Bonnie Doo, and Daphne; and the 

 South African, Coachman. Skittles, who belonged to Captain 

 Mowbray of the Black Watch, and who was a very good four- 

 teen hand pony, showed, I think, the maximum of comparative 

 height behind. Her excess of height at the croup (about 2 

 inches) was compensated for by the possession of remarkably 

 long and sloping shoulders. The large majority of racing 



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