[Illustration: FIG. 107.--PROPORTIONS OF THE HORSE (AFTER COLONEL DUHOUSSET).]
6. From the passage of the girth to the fetlock, M, I, or higher in large horses and racers; to the middle of the fetlock or lower for small ones and those of medium size.
7. From the superior fold of the stifle to the summit of the crupper in those specimens whose coxo-femoral angle is very open. This distance is always much less in others (G. and B.).[53]
[53] A proportion relative to the same region, and which at the outset might appear similar, is pointed out by Bourgelat (see p. 266, paragraph 4). But there exists a difference, for Bourgelat compared the length of the head, measured from the forelock to the commissure of the lips, and not that of the entire head, to the distance which separates the summit of the rump and the tip of the patella.
=Two and a half times the length of the head= gives:
1. The height of the withers, H, above the ground.[54]
[54] This proportion is that given by Bourgelat (see p. 265, paragraph 2).
2. The height of the summit of the crupper above the ground.[55]
[55] Consequently the withers and the crupper, being the same height, are situated on the same horizontal plane. Bourgelat, on the contrary, points out a difference of level in connection with these regions. According to him the summit of the crupper is situated below the horizontal plane passing the withers, and this distance equals half of the space which separates the great angle of one eye from that of the other (see p. 269, paragraph 20).
3. Very often the length of the body, from the point of the arm to that of the buttock, although for a long time the type of Bourgelat had been set aside as a conventional model, short and massive.[56]
'The drawing that we offer, which has two heads and a half in height and length, is that of a horse which we frequently meet with' (see Fig. 107; see also p. 279, where we again consider this question of the length of the body of the horse).
'The crupper, from the point of the haunch to that of the buttock, D, F, is always less than that of the head. This difference varies from 5 to 10 centimetres. The width of the crupper, from one haunch to the other, often very slightly exceeds its length.' MM. Goubeaux and Barrier add that frequently it equals it.[57]