ON BREEDING. 
491 
but when applied to horses, far more is demanded by horsemen, 
who consider that the more beautiful their forms the better are 
they adapted to answer the end for which they were designed. 
There are many forms that are not generally considered beautiful. 
The celebrated horse Eclipse, for instance, was never thought 
handsome by those who were not judges; but the reason of this 
was, that they never considered the beauty of this noble animal 
in the light of his fitness for his destination, since the mechanism 
of his frame, so far as it respected his powers of swiftness, might 
be considered almost as a compendium of perfection. 
To judge of proportion we must have a knowledge of the end 
for which any work is designed, for according to the end the 
proportion varies. Thus, there is one proportion of a racer , 
another of a hunter , another of a hackney , another of a coach- 
horse , and another of a cart-horse . Each breed possesses its own 
peculiar style of beauty # , agreeably to the purposes to which 
* “For racing, we require that the greatest possible quantity of bone, 
muscle, and sinew should be got into the smallest bulk. Every part in 
such a horse should be, as it were, condensed, and each organ bear evident 
marks of capability for quick and continued progression. In addition to 
great flexibility, and some length, the limbs must be strongly united, and 
systematically placed: the chest must be deep and capacious, and the 
hinder extremities particularly furnished with large muscles, operating on 
extended open angles. The hunter must have more bulk, and greater 
extent of form, to enable him to carry more weight, and to support it a 
longer time. In other respects, as almost the same qualities are requisite, 
so nearly a similar form, but more extended, is necessary. For if it requires 
that the racer should be very powerfully formed behind, to propel him for¬ 
ward in the gallop, so it is equally necessary that the hunter should be 
w ell formed in his loins, and well let down in his thighs; that he may 
have strength to cover his leaps, particularly when they are extensive and 
numerous. 
But in the hackney we look with as much anxiety to his fore parts as we 
do to the hinder parts of the racer and hunter; and as in them the fore 
parts are rather subordinate to the hinder, so in the hackney, on the con¬ 
trary, the hind parts may be regarded as of less consequence than the 
fore; for 'though speed is desirable, yet it is subordinate to safety. The 
head must be small, well placed, and well carried on a neck of due length: 
the withers high, the shoulders muscular but not heavy; and, above all, 
they should be deep and obliquely placed. The fore legs must be perfect 
throughout, and stand straight and w ell from under the horse ; and, what. in 
the hunter and racer is of less consequence, is here indispensable, that the 
elbows should be turned well from the body. The feet, also, it is requisite 
should be perfect, and the whole limbs free from stiffness. The height is 
not so essential in the hackney as in the two former ; indeed, the best size 
of the hackney is from 14-3 to 15-1: he should also be square set, without 
being in the least clumsy ; and with this form the more breeding he shews, 
short of full blood, the better. 
Coach-horses should be nothing more than very large hackneys; and 
whoever is at the pains to consider the matter attentively, will agree with 
me, though it is not usual to regard the matter exactly as I have stated it. 
