424 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
Before I quit this most important subject — the shoulder— I will 
endeavour to redeem a promise I made at the conclusion of the last 
lecture, viz. to shew that young horses, after they have to the com- 
mon observer appeared to have completed their growth, do actually 
“ rise” or grow in their withers, even in some instances after the 
expiration of their seventh year. 
So extremely variable and uncertain is found to be the growth 
of animals, that it is with a full sense of the fallibility of our pre- 
dictions that we, at any period of their lives, offer opinions about 
the height they are likely to attain. I have heard a gentleman 
very conversant and observant in these matters say, it is best not, 
in purchasing horses, to make too sure of their growing after the 
third year of their age ; and where colts at this age have the ap- 
pearance of being proportioned, and, as the phrase goes, “ set,” this 
is a practical hint which I hold to be well worthy of remembrance : 
as a general observation, however, it by no means applies. In our 
table, 17 three-year-olds out of 144 appear not to have grown in 
height, making a ratio of twelve per cent. Our faculty of forming 
tolerably correct opinions concerning future growth will mainly 
depend upon our opportunities of observation and the accuracy 
with which we may make deductions. Growing young horses, like 
growing boys and girls, are, as the phrase goes, “all legs and 
wings.” An old saying is in vogue, that the future tallness of the 
colt may be foretold by measuring the distance from the elbow to 
the ground, and carrying the same measurement upwards from the 
elbow upon the withers : both distances will be equal at the com- 
pletion of growth ; whatever, therefore, is, at the time of admea- 
surement, wanting in the upper line will have to be made up by 
growth, or, in other words, will constitute what the animal has yet 
to rise in the withers. * Some persons put a good deal of faith in 
this presumed attainment of certain proportions : for my own part, 
I cannot say I attach sufficient credit to it to put the comparative 
measurement in practice. According to the table — compiled from 
the scanty, though not, we believe, faulty records we have at hand — 
there is not more than one horse out of eight or nine that does not 
continue his growth after the third or even the fourth year of his 
age ; whereas, after the second year, the proportion diminishes to 
one in seventeen or eighteen ; and, at the fifth year, increases to 
one in five or six. There are seven instances recorded of horses 
growing after six years old ; and one after the seventh year of age. 
One instance stands recorded in the table of a two-year-old colt 
having made the extraordinary rise of 9J inches by the time he 
had completed his growth. He measured 15 hands 3J inches as 
a two-year-old, and at the adult period, seven or eight years of age, 
had attained the enormous height of 17 hands 3 inches. He was a 
