FLANK, or FLANC, in the manège, is applied to the sides of a horse's buttock, &c. In a strict sense, the flanks of a horse are the extremes of the belly, where the ribs are wanting, and are below the loins.
The flanks of a horse should be full, and at the top of each a feather. The distance between the last rib and haunch-bone, which is properly the flank, should be short, which they term well coupled, such horses being most hardy, and fit to endure labour.
A horse is said to have no flank if the last of the short ribs be at a considerable distance from the haunch-bone; as also when the ribs are too much straitened in their compass.