BREAST. 171 



only to a very slight extent, on width of chest. I need 

 hardly say that this measurement of ''width through the 

 heart " is taken behind the shoulders, the condition of which 

 can, therefore, in no way affect it. 



When a horse is narrow between the fore legs by reason 

 of the emaciated condition of his pectoral muscles, ** the keel 

 of his breast bone becomes prominent, the points of the 

 shoulder are pushed forward to the front, and allow to be 

 seen, between them and the breast, two deep depressions in 

 which the jugular grooves terminate below'' {Goubaux and 

 Barrier). These writers point to the fact that narrowness 

 in front may therefore be either natural or acquired. In 

 the cart-horse, width of breast is a desirable point ; for he 

 requires to have massive muscles. Close observation of 

 thoroughbreds convinces me that a race-horse cannot be too 

 ''narrow in front;" provided that his fore legs 'are properly 

 shaped and properly put on, and that the action in front is 

 consequently '* true." Undue narrowness of the chest may 

 arise from the elbow being turned in and the toes turned out, 

 as in Fig. 48, which represents a defective conformation of 

 the part. The increase of width between the fore legs in 

 proportion to weight-carrying power, is but slight in the 

 well-shaped hunter, as we may see in Fig. 276, which is the 

 front view of a particularly strong and active fifteen-stone 

 hunter (Fig. 330). Fig. 277 is the front view of another 

 powerful fifteen-stone hunter that could gallop, jump and 

 stay with the best. We see in Fig. 275 the same view of a 

 thoroughbred that was particularly thick, for a clean bred 

 horse, in the shoulders and far too wide in front for galloping. 

 The muscles of the fore arm in this figure contrast, as regards 

 development, unfavourably with those of Fig. 276. Those 

 of my readers who have followed me up to the present point 

 need hardly be told that in the saddle-horse, the propor- 

 tionate development of the muscles which give width between 

 the fore legs (those of the shoulders), should never exceed 

 that of the muscles of the fore legs. Fig, 279 gives a front 

 view of a light harness horse which was too broad between 



