Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« Exact ideas on the Conformation of the Horse are not current either in the traditions of our sporting people or in our literature. The few English authors who have written on it, have treated this important subject in a fragmentary manner, and have contented themselves for the most part with laying down rule-of-thumb maxims for the blind acceptance of their readers. The French, on the contrary, have written on L’ Extérieur du Cheval , several elaborate books upon which they have expended an amount of scientific knowledge that does them infinite credit; but their works show that their experience has been gained more in the study and dissecting room, than in the stable and in the field, and they have made but little use of photography. As illustrations of horses drawn without the aid of photography, have a bias difficult to be repressed, they render the ideas of the artist more accurately than they portray the realities of nature.

First principles of conformation -- Names of external parts -- Structures of the body -- Sketch of the anatomy of the horse -- Mechanism of breathing -- Distribution of weight in the horse’s body -- Levers -- Mechanism of equine locomotion -- Mechanism of draught -- Attitudes of the horse -- Stationary movements of the horse -- Equine locomotion -- Leaping -- Notation of the paces of the horse -- Comparative shape of horses -- Head and neck -- The trunk -- The fore limb -- The hind limb -- Skin, colour, and hair -- Action, handiness and cleverness -- Condition and good looks -- Weight-carrying and staying power -- Blood, symmetry and compensations -- Special points of various classes -- Effects of climate and soil on conformation -- Classification of the Equidæ -- British and Irish horses -- Colonial horses -- Continental horses -- American horses -- Asiatic and North African horses -- Wild horses -- Asses, zebras and equine hybrids -- Evolution of the horse -- Photographing horses -- Proportions of the horse -- The painter’s horse. » Présentation de l’éditeur (1904)