64 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
has, over and over "again, assured me, was in mud a most capital 
horse after hounds ; and, indeed, when we came to look at his 
points — when we perceived that he had loins broad and rounded, 
haunches fleshy, and thighs down to his hocks, it became no 
matter of surprise to learn that his powers, in spite of his hollow- 
ness of back, were so surpassing. Had he been made narrow 
and tucked-up in his loins, ragged in his hips, flat and thin in his 
thighs, and weak in his hocks, his hollow back would have proved 
an additional source of weakness to him, and rendered him, for all 
purposes where strength was required, every thing but worthless. 
A short back is well adapted for the support of weight, and, from 
being combined with, as a sort of kindred make, broad loins and 
full hind quarters, is, with reason, regarded as a mark of strength : 
but it is disadvantageous for gallopping. It will not admit of any 
great length in the limbs, for fear of their interfering with one 
another in action, or of one set over-shooting the other, and there- 
fore, most wisely, it is combined with short legs, whose two strides 
amount to little more in extent than one of the long-backed horse’s. 
Consequently, to keep equal pace, one horse must take three or 
four strides while the other is taking two. The short back is 
well suited to the dray or cart-horse, in whom we want not speed 
but strength ; and strength not alone to bear burthen, but in draught. 
In heavy draught, in particular, length of body would prove disad- 
vantageous to him, from the circumstance of the limbs being re- 
quired to be longer and farther distant from each other, and from the 
step being greater than is compatible with the full concentration and 
co-operation of the bodily powers. The short step of the cart-horse 
or cob it is which enables him to husband and maintain his powers 
of strength while in action. A long step would, by the too great 
call upon those powers, tend to exhaust them ; and, by repetition, 
render the animal incapable of proceeding with his load. 
I have just observed that when the back is short the loins will 
be found to be broad and strong — what is called, good ; a circum- 
stance arising from the circularity of the chest and the breadth of 
the hips — these four formations, viz., shortness of back, circularity 
of chest, breadth of hip, and strength of loins, generally being 
found in combination. It is a great matter that a horse should 
have good loins, and when these are associated with a long back, 
and the requisite length and substance of hind quarters, we may 
take it for granted that the animal possesses both speed and en- 
durance. Look at hares and rabbits, greyhounds, deer, kangaroos, 
and such-like animals, and note what thickness of loins, and length 
and muscularity of hind limbs they all exhibit; while their fore-parts 
amount to hardly any thing in comparative substance. It is im- 
possible that a horse with thin narrow loins can hold in his gallop : 
