POINTS IN COMMON 133 



their legs. Were those of Ormonde, as he is in the Frontis- 

 piece, cut down nine or ten inches and proportionately 

 thickened, and were he swelled out by ''bulky'' food, he 

 would pass fairly well as a cart-horse ! The statement which 

 I have just made concerning the comparative proportions of 

 the two extreme types of horses, may not appear so out- 

 rageous as it might do at first glance, if we consider that the 

 difference of work between them is one of limbs and not of 

 body. The galloper needs the highest possible development 

 of speed with a sufficiency of strength ; the cart-horse, a 

 maximum of strength with a very moderate amount of speed ; 

 both the strength and speed being derived from the muscles 

 of the limbs. The two classes, however, are in their work 

 equally dependent on the organs (those of breathing, circula- 

 tion, digestion, secretion, etc.) which are contained in the body. 

 The lungs of the draught animal, when facing a stiff hill with 

 a heavy load behind him, have to be in as good order as 

 those of a racer who is finishing in front of the Grand Stand 

 at Epsom or Newmarket His stomach, bowels, liver, 

 spleen, kidneys, etc., will also require to be as healthy as 

 those of the other. Hence we need not expect to find, nor 

 shall we meet with, any material difference in the proportions 

 of the respective bodies of these two animals. If we take 

 from the table given on page 127, the depths (from withers to 

 brisket) of the four representative horses, and divide them 

 respectively into the lengths of these animals, we shall find 

 the ratio for Ormonde, St Simon and Cheadle Jumbo to be 

 I to 2.1, and for Chance, i to 2.2 ; while the ratio of their 

 depths at the lowest point of their backs to their lengths will 

 be in all four cases, i to 2^ (nearly). This is sufficient to 

 prove the close identity of proportions between the depth and 

 length of body both in racers and heavy cart-horses, and a 

 fortiori with those of the intermediate classes, such as hunters, 

 troopers, and light harness horses. 



It may be objected to the foregoing remarks that, in the 

 heavy draught animal, the shoulders are thicker, and the 

 breast broader in proportion to the length of the body, than 



