COM PENS A TIONS. 369 



of the head with the neck. The thickness of the latter 

 should conform to that of the former. 



Undue lightness of neck. — Full mane ; light head^ small 

 ears, sloping and flat shoulders. 



Heavy neck and loaded shoulders may be corrected to 

 some extent, from a beauty point of view, by a good- 

 looking, intelligent head, nice crest, and light mane. From 

 considerations of utility, the shoulders and pasterns 

 should be sloping ; the bones, muscles, tendons, and 

 ligaments of the fore limb below the shoulder, strong ; 

 feet, good ; and loins and hind quarters, powerful. For 

 cross-country work, strong and sloping fore pasterns are 

 the best compensation for shoulders that are upright and 

 heavy. 



Fore legs helow the elbows too light ; Pasterns too upright, 

 or too oblique. — Legs otherwise well-shaped ; light fore- 

 hand ; sloping shoulders ; and good loins. 



" Calf knees,'' or " over at the knees." — Strength of leg 

 below the elbow ; parallelism of back tendons with cannon- 

 bones (p. 282) ; sloping shoulders ; light fore-hand ; 

 strong loins. 



Ribs " flat-sided. " — Good depth of body at lowest point 

 of back ; flanks well ribbed-up. 



Too hollow in the back. — Light fore-hand, sloping 

 shoulders, and in all cases, broad, powerful loins, which 

 is the best kind of compensation in this instance. 



Loins too light, and fianks badly ribbed-up. — Light fore- 

 hand ; shoulders and pasterns oblique ; well - rounded 

 barrel; strong hind-quarters; good gaskins ; ''straight- 

 dropped " hind legs. 



Hind-quarters too light. — Light fore-hand ; shoulders 

 and pasterns obhque ; light, but well-rounded barrel ; 

 muscular loins ; good gaskins ; " straight-dropped " hind 

 legs. 



" Sickle hocks." — With this defect in a saddle-horse 

 which is required for fast work, it would be well for 

 him to have good length of hind legs, the possession 



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