420 
E. A. A. GRANGE. 
In those horses with slanting or very drooping croups the tail 
usually comes out low down. 
The dock (Plate I, 11) or root of the tail is a part which should 
always be observed when examining a horse, and the animal le- 
quired to perform in its various paces, then the examiner can 
readily judge if there is anything radically worng with its carriage 
or shape. 
Many persons regard the resistance offered by the muscles of 
the dock when, for instance, the crupper being applied, as an 
index of the annimal’s strength and endurance, and it does seem 
that stiff docked horses are generally good ones, yet we have 
seen so many limber docked animals which were capable of pei- 
forming in a most satisfactory manner, that we would hesitate in 
condemning the horse with the limber dock without somefuithei 
evidence that it was an inferior animal. 
The thorax (Plate I, 22)or chest is a region which is of great 
importance from every standpoint that a horse is judged, and it 
usually bears a somewhat close relation in shape to the kind of 
work nature has intended the animal to perform. For a familiar 
example of this we have only to look at the chest of the grey¬ 
hound to see what a striking contrast it presents with his more 
surly neighbor, the bulldog, or observe the difference between 
the shape of the thorax of the English thoroughbred and the 
Scotch draft horse. In the former we find it deeper from above 
downwards and comparatively narrow in the bosom; his admirer 
tells us that he likes ’em deep through the girth! While the 
connoisseur in the draft class must have them with a good broad 
breast, with a large full bosom and fore legs well apart. We 
must not forget, however, that this narrowness of chest and full¬ 
ness of bosom is modified a good deal by condition, and probably 
does account to a considerable extent for the well trained and 
thin race horse being able to gallop with such ease and precision, 
when the same animal if fat would go awkwardly in comparison. 
Our observation has led us to believe that the narrow chest, that 
is comparatively narrow, is more essential to the fast, easy stride 
of the galloping horse than it is to the trotter; but we do not 
