Gradually the pace of the hunt became faster, and the terriers were bred with longer legs for more speed towards the end of the 18th century.
Boris also littered his GQ motoring column with such references as comparing driving a Ferrari to the whole of "Hampshire lying back and opening her well-bred legs to be ravished by the Italian stallion".
Of driving the Ferrari F430, he reported: "It was as though the whole county of Hampshire was lying back and opening her well-bred legs to be ravished by the Italian stallion".
However, as with most breeds, form follows function: terriers that work underground have shorter legs, while terriers bred to work aboveground have squarer proportions.
You'll be familiar with these breeds: short legs, squashed faces.
The breed's legs tend to be straight, with good, dense bone that makes them sound and sturdy.
So if you cut one leg off a mouse and bred it, he reasoned, the little mice would have one leg smaller than the rest.
Now he has 40 greyhounds and greyhound mixes, some with scarred legs and faces, that he bred on his 318-acre ranch.
Foxhunting has pretty much been abolished now, even in England, but more than one owner of the breed must have noticed that somewhere along the line fox terriers with their long faces, straight front legs, and pricked ears had been selectively bred to look a lot like horses.
Some cats, known as munchkins, are bred with a dwarf gene, to have short little legs, like a dachshund.
Turkeys are drugged and bred to grow so large so quickly that their legs are often unable to withstand the weight.
