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LECTURES ON HORSES. 
absolutely requisite, and only on occasions called into action. This 
accounts for the especial development of the hind quarters in 
quadrupeds of speed, or such as are gifted with extraordinary 
powers of saltation, such as kangaroos. In surveying the points 
of a race-horse, the practical man on the turf sets great value on 
such as are big-haunched ; knowing well, that, coeteris paribus, a 
horse so made cannot be far behind his competitors in the race. 
The pelvis is the name given to that irregular quadrangle of 
bone which, completing the skeleton posteriorly, constitutes the 
framework or basis of the rump and hips*. It is formed by the 
counter-position and part union of the two hip or haunch bones, 
and by the sacrum or rump-bone, which is let in between them, 
and makes a sort of roofing to the cavity of the pelvis. In an 
anatomical point of view, the pelvis is a part of considerable im- 
portance, from the circumstance of its lodging within its cavity the 
urinary bladder, and the organs of generation in the female : to us, 
on the present occasion, it is of importance chiefly on account of 
its position in regard to obliquity, its shape, and its magnitude, 
and the consequent facility it affords the femoral bones in their 
motions, and the leverage it offers to the muscles attached to it. 
A small or narrow pelvis cramps the viscera within it, leaves insuf- 
ficient space for the foetus in utero, and produces, exteriorly, what 
is called “ falling-off in the hind quarters” — small rump, and flat 
and lank haunches. 
A large or wide pelvis throws the hips further apart, making the 
animal “ broad-hipped,” or, as he is denominated when the hips 
are unusually prominent, “ ragged-hipped ;” there being, as would 
appear in the latter case, some deficiency of muscle. Within 
limits, breadth across the hips is desirable. Cart-horses can hardly 
be too broad and big about their hind quarters : not so, however, 
with horses intended for speed. For it must be remembered, that 
by the increase of the distance across from one hip to the other, 
the hip-joints, in which the femoral bones perform their motions, 
are also removed farther apart, wider from the centre of gravity; 
the consequences of which are, inability on their part to balance the 
machine and move it, in progression, with the same effect as when 
they are nearer together. The broad-hipped horse will “ stand over 
more ground,” crosswise, than the narrow-hipped one, and will, on 
that account, maintain a surer standing ; but should he attempt in 
action to place his feet underneath his body, at all centrically, he 
will only be able to take short steps in advance, and should he not 
attempt this, his wide gait must make his burthen the greater. 
Broad-hipped horses, in their gallop, cannot throw their hind feet 
See the skeleton at page 6, vol. xv. 
