184 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
most room for the operations of the contained organs, out of which 
result, wind, and strength, and stamina — it has ever been through- 
out the animal world considered a point of the greatest desidera- 
tion. We see it associated with good wind and bodily strength in 
numerous quadrupeds, in fowls, in man even : we have only to 
contrast the circular chest of the bull-dog with the narrow one of 
the greyhound ; that of the goose with the turkey’s ; and one man 
in this respect with another ; and we shall have striking evidence 
of a fact of which it would be easy to multiply examples ad infini- 
tum. It is upon this same principle of conformation that farmers, 
and graziers, and cattle dealers, proceed in their selection and 
judgment of stock — not for purposes of wind and strength, so much 
as for their known constitutional powers to grow fat, their dispo- 
sition to feed kindly, and to turn out such in the hands of the 
butcher as others, differently formed, with double and treble the 
quantity of food, would never become : indeed, form of chest has 
grown into a consideration of the first importance with the agri- 
culturist, and by him has been turned to a most useful and profit- 
able account. And to the horseman, is it no mean advantage for 
him to possess a horse with good stamina — strong wind and con- 
stitution — one that will do double the work of another, and do that 
work upon comparatively little or indifferent provender 1 But, in 
his case, joined with this consideration, is another, one of equal or 
more import still, and that is, action. Can the horse with the 
circular chest perform — make use of his limbs — as well as one 
with a chest differently formed ] Can he go as free and as fast ] 
We must answer, No! The breadth of his chest will be disad- 
vantageous to the action of his fore limbs; and, therefore, we 
must be content to make a sacrifice in one respect that we may 
be gainers in another. Nature, however, even in this apparent 
dilemma, has made a provision, by giving 
Depth TO THE Chest : a formation which greatly compen- 
sates for deficiency in breadth, while it enables the animal to use 
his fore limbs with all the freedom and effect required. Be sure 
to look for plenty of depth in the chest : it is a most important 
point, where we cannot have breadth or circularity, and where 
speed or action is demanded. Nowhere in nature is the design 
of this or that form of chest more strikingly and beautifully shewn 
than in the different breeds of horses. The cart-horse is admired 
for his “ fine round barrel,” and his “ broad, full, fleshy bosom 
the racer, for his “ great depth of chest without that breadth and 
consequent seposition of the shoulders, which would diminish his 
facility of progression. In both cases — as in the bull-dog and grey- 
hound — there is ample girth of chest, and, therefore, space enough 
