The width of the hind-leg, viewed laterally, from the cleft of the buttocks to the inferior part of the tuberosity of the tibia.
20. One-half of this interval between the eyes (1⁄2 P) gives:
The width of the posterior canon-bone, viewed laterally.
The width of the fetlock of the fore-limb, from its anterior summit to the root of the spur.
Finally, the difference of the height of the crupper with respect to the summit of the withers.
It is certain that the multiplicity of these proportions, and above all the exaggeration of details into which Bourgelat fell in indicating certain of the measures which constitute the bases of some of them, may repel the reader.
For this cause we desire to add to the preceding, and also because the question which we are treating would be incomplete without it, the results obtained and published by other more modern authors, and in particular by Colonel Duhousset.[49]
[49] E. Duhousset, ‘Le Cheval,’ Paris, 1881.
This author, one of whose constant occupations is the measurement of the different regions of the horse, has the incontestable merit of having drawn attention to this question, and of having strained all his energies in the propagation of the knowledge which until then was little diffused. Among the proportions which he recommends, there are some which are the result of his own observations; whilst others, which he has verified and adopted, are the result of a judicious selection of those given by Bourgelat, which we have just reproduced in the preceding pages.