ch if large is partly a disfigurement and partly tends to
make the horse less strong and capable of carrying weight. (26)

(26) Al. "more feeble at once and ponderous in his gait."

The quarters should be broad and fleshy in correspondence with the sides
and chest, and if they are also firm and solid throughout they will be
all the lighter for the racecourse, and will render the horse in every
way more fleet.

To come to the thighs (and buttocks): (27) if the horse have these
separated by a broad line of demarcation (28) he will be able to plant
his hind-legs under him with a good gap between; (29) and in so doing
will assume a posture (30) and a gait in action at once prouder and more
firmly balanced, and in every way appear to the best advantage.

(27) Lit. "the thighs beneath the tail."

(28) Reading {plateia to gramme diorismenous ekhe}, sc. the perineum.
Al. Courier (after Apsyrtus), op. cit. p. 14, {plateis te kai me
diestrammenous}, "broad and not turned outwards."

(29) Or, "he will be sure to spread well behind," etc.

(30) {ton upobasin}, tech. of the crouching posture assumed by the
horse for mounting or "in doing the demi-passade" (so Morgan, op.
cit. p. 126).

The human subject would seem to point to this conclusion. When a
man wants to lift anything from off the ground he essays to do so by
bringing the legs apart and not by bringing them together.

A horse ought not to have large testicles, though that is not a point to
be determined in the colt.

And now, as regards the lower parts, the hocks, (31) or shanks and
fetlocks and hoofs, we have only to repeat what has been said already
about those of the fore-legs.

(31) {ton katothen astragelon, e knemon}, lit. "the under (or hinder?)
knuckle-bones (hocks?) or shins"; i.e. anatomically speaking, the
os calcis, astragalus, tarsals, and metatarsal large and small.

I will here note some indications by which one may forecast the probable
size of the grown animal. The colt with the longest shanks at the moment
of being foaled will grow into the biggest horse; the fact being--and it
holds of all the domestic quadrupeds (32)--that with advance of time the
legs hardly increase at all, while the rest of the body grows uniformly
up to these, until it has attained its proper symmetry.

(32) Cf. Aristot. "de Part. Anim." iv. 10; "H. A." ii. 1; Plin. "N.
H." xi. 108.

Such is the type (33) of colt and such the tests to