248 SPECIAL POINTS OF VARIOUS CLASSES OF HORSES 



Allowing for the scars of honourable warfare, his fore leo-s 

 may be said to be ot the type shown in Fig. 294 



As a rule, in ''The Provinces," especially where the 

 country is cramped and there is a good deal of plough, as in 

 Cheshire, for instance, the hunters are up to more weic^ht 

 and are more cobby than m Leicestershire. Fig 330 

 shows a fine type, as far as conformation goes, of a 

 Cheshire hunter, who, though strong and thick-set, has a 

 sufficiency of speed. For a horse of his build, he has com- 

 paratively light shoulders, as we may infer from a front view 

 of his fore hand (Fig. 276), in that he has no undue width 

 between his fore legs. 



Love of gambling is, no doubt, the chief cause why, 

 among animals of equally high merit in their own respective 

 spheres of life, race-horses and chasers are more valuable 

 from a monetary point of view than hunters , for were it 

 otherwise, no sane man would spend more money in the 

 purchase of a horse for another man to ride, than in that of 

 an animal for his own riding. I make this remark solely 

 from a desire to emphasise the importance of a study of the 

 ** points " of our most valuable all round horse, the hunter ; 

 for I am fond of racing as well as hunting, and have no 

 objection to a ''mild gamble," 



The Heavy Cart-horse— i. The legs should be as 

 short and massive as possible : consequently the animal will 

 be considerably longer in the body than he is high at the 

 withers or at the croup, and he will be deeper from the 

 withers to the brisket, than from the withers to the ground. 



2. He should be of great width of body when viewed from 

 behind ; and across the chest in front. 



3.^ His muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments should be 

 as thick and strong as possible. 



4^ The shoulders should be sloping in cart-horses which do 

 not use their fore legs, to any marked degree, as propellers ; 

 and somewhat upright in those which utilise them in that 

 manner (p. 188, et seq\ 



