304 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
tibial bones, is forced well forward and upward towards the body, 
and at the same time discloses through the skin the prominence of 
the patella, but particularly that of the rectus muscle above it. 
The prominence of the stifle, it is evident, must depend upon the 
obliquity of the position of the femoral bone, and the sharpness 
of the angle formed between it and the tibia : in one instance, 
the stifle will appear bold and obtrusive, abutting almost against 
the belly ; in another, it will be seen situated low down upon the 
thigh, quite away from the belly; and this latter is the stifle of all 
others which indicates, as far as it and its connexions are con- 
cerned, want of power and action in the hind quarter. 
THE THIGH, OR GASKIN. 
What horse-persons now understand by the thigh of the horse 
is the part between the stifle and hock joints; a part, anatomically 
regarded, that corresponds to the human leg. In the young animal 
it is composed of two bones ; but these bones are united by an 
elastic (cartilago-ligamentous) substance which, as the animal ap- 
proaches the adult period, becomes gradually converted into osseous 
matter, until at length the two bones become in reality one and the 
same solid structure; so that in every horse of full growth it would 
be but in accordance with truth to say, the thigh was composed of 
a single bone. The tibia presents upon its superior end two ovoid 
superficial depressions, which are, by the addition of cartilaginous 
interventions, rendered deeper and better adapted to receive the 
condyles of the femoral bone, the one moving upon the other in 
extension and flexion, and having some little lateral motion. The 
lower end of the tibia is smaller than the superior, the bone taper- 
ing rather from top to bottom, and is shaped so as to accommodate 
itself to the construction of the hock-joint. 
The chief considerations touching the thigh or gaskin are its 
position , its length, and its thickness or muscularity. In accord- 
ance with the harmony of natural formations, where the haunches 
are straight and lengthy the thighs become lengthy and receding : 
in horsemen’s phraseology, they are well “let down;” and the 
consequence is, the hocks are low, and the cannons short. The 
hind quarter, in fact, altogether, has the turn and appearance of 
the greyhound, and is evidently well adapted for purposes of speed. 
And, providing all this be accompanied by the requisite substance 
or muscularity of parts, a quarter of such a character in a race- 
horse must be regarded as one of his very finest and most ad- 
mirable points. This constitutes the veritable blood quarter — the 
quarter every man who is seeking after breeding and speed is ever 
looking for. And when we find it with “the thighs let down into 
