Twelve lectures on the form and action of the horse: to which are appended, some experimental inquiries into the effects of medicine on horses / [William Percivall].
- Percivall, William, 1792-1854.
- Date:
- 1850
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Twelve lectures on the form and action of the horse: to which are appended, some experimental inquiries into the effects of medicine on horses / [William Percivall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![ters would have given them increased gallopping speed, but they could, with the augmented stride, neither have carried the required weight nor maintained the stability and firmness of step requisite for heavy draught, and, therefore, they would not have proved so valuable either upon the road or in the field. On this account the short-quartered horse is often to be preferred to the lengthy one, even for the purposes of hunting; though, of course, should there be found—as nowadays there often is, from our extensive increase of blood—lengthy quarters possessing the requisite strength, they will in the field surpass al] the cocktails*. Still, do the latter retain one advantage over the blood-horse: with their short and strengthy quarters, they commonly inherit powers of leaping, and cleverness in getting over awkward places, for which the long ereyhound-like quarter of the racer seems ill adapted. The same remark may likewise be made in respect to the manege: horses with racing-like quarters never perform so cleverly with their haunches as others; they have difficulty in getting their haunches under them, and from extreme elasticity, manifest ‘ weakness” in them, on which account thorough-breds rarely turn out accom- plished military chargers. We know that Irish hunters are pro- verbially good leapers; and they are remarkable for their short, high-rumped, any thing but handsome, quarters: withal, however, they perform wonders in jumping, particularly in the hunting field, and this they are enabled to do from great breadth and shortness, combined with uncommon muscularity of the hind quarters. The cart or dray-horse, the cob, the hackney to carry weight, are all valued the more for their large, rotund, plump quarters. Lank or lengthy quarters, such as would be admired in a racer, are, in these horses, detractive from their worth and beauty; as much, in fact, out of character, as round and full quarters would be upon arace-horse. This shews how necessary it is, before we pro- nounce on the aptitude or inaptitude of these parts, to first deter- mine the breed of the animal, or for what purpose he is intended. The quarters may be ‘ good” of the kind, and yet of a character unsuitable to the breed or make of the horse, or they may be of a description in keeping with the breed and conformation of the * Half-bred horses, with short round quarters, from their tails being car- ried erect, are commonly so called.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33099364_0090.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
