On Horsemanship

of long experience in the field, our wish is to explain, for the benefit of our you

But we shall not on that account expunge from our treatise any conclusions in which we happen to agree with that author; on the contrary we shall hand them on with still greater pleasure to our friends, in the bel

he question, how a man may best avoid b

erefore to the body, the first point to examine, we maintain, will be the feet. Just as a house would be of little use, however beautiful its upper stories, if the underlying foundations were not what they ought

re high both before and behind, or flat to the ground; for a high hoof keeps the "frog,"6 as it is called, well off the ground; whereas a low hoof treads equally with the stoutest and softest part of

t be too straight, like those of a goat; through not being properly elastic,11 legs of this type will jar the rider, and are more liable to become inflam

h veins or flesh; or else in riding over hard ground they will inevitably be surcharged with blood, and varicose conditions be set up,13 the legs be

ave flexible legs, since the quality of suppleness invariably increases with age.15 Supple knees are highly esteemed and wi

not overlap and interfere with one another. Again, the neck should not be set on dropping forward from the chest, like a boar's, but, like that of a game-cock rather, it should shoot upwards to the crest, and be slack17 along the curvature; whilst the head should be bony and the jawbone small. In this way the ne

r hard on one or other side, since as a rule a horse with u

is suggestive of alertness, and a horse of

tion, and gives the animal a fiercer aspect. Note how, for instance, when one stallion is enraged

like appearance to the head, whilst lofty withers again allow the rider a

e eye. So, too, a fairly deep side somewhat rounded towards the belly24 will render the anima

rs under him. Given these points, moreover, the belly will appear as small as possible, a portion of the body which

chest, and if they are also firm and solid throughout they will be all the

will be able to plant his hind-legs under him with a good gap between;29 and in so doing will assume a posture

man wants to lift anything from off the ground he essays to do

esticles, though that is not a po

hanks and fetlocks and hoofs, we have only to repeat w

moment of being foaled will grow into the biggest horse; the fact being - and it holds of all the domestic quadrupeds32 - that with advance

arge of stature. If changes in some instances develop during growth, that need not prevent us from applying our tests in confidence. It far more often h