OF THE VARIED FORM OF THE HORSE, ACCORDING TO THE SEVERAL USES TO WHICH HE IS APPLIED.

"It is evident," says Mr. Blaine, in his valuable work, Veterinary Outlines, that, according to the several purposes to which we apply the horse, so great variations in his bulk and proportions are necessary. The fleetest racer that ever scoured the plain would cut a sorry figure in a London coal-waggon; and the most splendid among the stallions of Barclay's brewing establishment would be ill-fitted for a breathing over the courses of Newmarket or Doncaster.

Let us

figure to ourselves four Shetlanders in a Portsmouth drag, or Lord Sefton's buggy-horse in a garden chair or pony-chaise, and we shall be at once convinced that, had not climate operated in producing different races of horses, and with very different proportions, the industry of man would still have enlisted the agencies of domesticatiou to bend his frame, as well as those of horned cattle and of the dog, to his purpose.

"The form of the racer at once points him out as an animal intended for great velocity of motion. His aboriginal outline, as derived from the east, betrayed a similar intention; and as his uses have been principally confined to a display of these powers of locomotion, so it has been the endeavour of the breeders of this variety, by the arts of domestication, to mould his form, and fashion his organs, to a capability for velocity even greater than that intended by nature; which is evident by the circumstance, that none of the eastern horses can now compete with our race-horse. But to effect this in any great degree, some of those qualities which in most of the other uses to which the horse is put are

absolutely requisite, must, of necessity, be sacrificed; for nature, to keep up a true balance between her creatures, never gives to any individual the united advantages of all. In the race-horse, the sacrifices at the shrine of velocity are safety and ease, as regards progression, and strength as regards the bearing of burdens or the drawing of loads. In many other of the uses of the horse we require that his extremities shall command a principal share of attention, by their own height, and by the elevation of the withers and crest they accompany. In the racer, on the contrary, as in other quadrupeds remarked for speed, we are more attentive to the hinder extremities; convinced, as we are by analogy and experience, that they must be long, to maintain a preponderating influence over the whole remaining portions of the machine, which they are the principal agents in displacing and propelling forward. In the racer, we do not endeavour to produce any other than a circular form of carcass, for none is so good for all horses; but we do endeavour to lessen its diameter generally. By every means in our power we therefore draw up the belly, as it is called, that we may not only lighten the animal thereby, but also that we may obtain more room for the operation of the true thigh of the horse, which would be otherwise obstructed by the pressure of heavy viscera on a full belly. But in the degree that we take liberties with the belly towards the loins by drawing it up, we must enlarge the capacity of the trunk forwards. We therefore not only prefer a deep chest, but one also of large diameter. The capacity of the chest depends on its form more than on the extent of its circumference; for where the girth in equal in two animals, one may have much larger lungs than the other. A deep chest, therefore, is not capacious, un

less it is proportionably broad. The external indications of the size of the lungs are the form and size of the chest, the form of which should approach to the figure of a cone, having its apex situated between the shoulders, and its base towards the loins.'-Cline on the Form of Animals.

"Such a form of chest is essential to the racer, and was found in his primogenitors. Its advantages are, first, that it receives the volume of digestive organs somewhat displaced by the powerful action of the abdominal muscles in training. Lodged here, the digestive functions can be carried on to the proper nourishment of the animal. Secondly, by this form the lungs, which are of the first importance to the racer, can expand to meet his exigencies. It is on their size and soundness thet the strength and health of an animal principally depends. The power of converting food into nourishment is in proportion to their size. An animal with large lungs is capable of converting a given quantity of food into more nourishment than one with smaller ones.'-Ib.

"We must not, however, hold the operation of the fore extremities too cheaply; nor be inattentive to the necessity of perfection in their form. The principal weight of the machine is borne by them; they sustain the head, neck, and trunk; and they not only stand as opponents to the inordinate power of the hinder extremities, but they also take a portion, though a limited one, of the progressive movements; for they draw the hinder extremities forwards at the moment when these latter have expended their force, by flexion and extension, and thus place them in a situation for new action. If it is not of consequence to the racer that the general fore-hand be equally high with the hinder parts, it is however so, that the shoulder be deep and

oblique; and such form of it usually, but not always, accompanies a deep and capacious chest. The arms, under the above views, should be powerfully formed throughout; and it is particularly necessary to their freedom of action in the gsllop, that they stand well out, and perpendicularly, as a columnar support. As a summary; the racer should exhibit the greatest possible quantity of bone, muscle, and sinew, condensed into the smallest possible bulk throughout the whole machine. The body also should be sufficiently long to allow of free flexion of the hinder extremities: it is an axiom with the best judges of the racer, that there must be leugth somewhere;' but the where has occasioned some discrepancy of opinion, which arises from not uniting analogy with mechanical principles. It is argued by some, that long legs can propel a short body forward, and which is partially true; but our most perfect model of speed is the greyhound; and a very short bodied greyhound is seldom seen, and still less seldom is such a one seen to run well. It is evident that the hinder extremities cannot be carried beyond the extent of the angles allowed by the direction of the bones if carried further, they would endanger the safety of the articulation, or an injurious pressure on the carcass they propelled. A short body, therefore, is injurious to speed, both by mechanically preventing the full extent of the action of the hinder extremities, and also by losing as much at each stroke of the gallop as is the difference between its length and that of one differently formed; which, if it were only one inch, yet, when multiplied by a number of strokes over the Beacon course, would amount to an important distance in a closely contested race.

"Both length and breadth in the hinder quarters have been already proved to be essential to the well

formed racer. It is hardly necessary to add, that the thighs must be muscular in the extreme, the hock broad, and, like the knee, it should be placed low down in the limb: the hinder pasterns, like those before, should be long and oblique, but with strength sufficient to combat the strain on them.

The hunter of the present day is totally a different animal to what he was fifty years ago. To follow hounds of every kind, as they are now bred, the hunter should be but one, or at the most two, removes from a fullbred horse: some now in use are altogether full-bred. Consequently the selection of a hunter, under the present system, combines the qualities of speed met with in the racer, with as much additional bone, muscle, and extended form altogether, as will enable him to carry more weight, and support it during a long course of fatigue and privation. Therefore with the following form, the more of those qualities that usually accompany what is called full-blood, the better: the breed yielding the speed and determination, and the form providing for the application of these qualities to the purposes of the rider.

To the hunter it is essential that he be elevated in his fore-hand, and possess a sufficient length of neck to enable him, in his long-continued gallops, to bring the whole of the air-passages, from the nostril to the chest, into a straight line nearly, which will greatly assist him in long and severe bursts. It is essential also to good wind, as pointed out in the form of the racer, that his chest be deep and more circular than narrow; and equally so, that he may have digestive capacity without clumsiness. His arms must be muscular, and his flexor tendons should stand out from his knee, and proceed wide and flat down the whole of his canon: and as in the hunter, flexibility must, in some degree,