166 



THE HORSE. 



while it raises tlie bead. Its action, however, may be too powerrul f it 

 may be habitually so, and then it may produce deformity. The back of 

 the head being thus pulled back, and the muzzle protruded, the iiorse 

 cannot by possibility carry his head well ; he will become what is techni- 

 cally called a star-gazer; heavy in hand, lx)ring upon the bit, and unsafe. 

 To remedy this, recourse is had, and in a majority of cases without avail, 

 to the martingale, against which the horse is continually fighting, and 

 Avhich is often a complete annoyance to the rider. Such a horse is almost 

 useless for harness. 



Inseparable from this is another sad defect, so far as the beauty cf the 

 horse is concerned; he becomes ctve-necked ; he has a neck like a ewe; 

 not arched above, and straight below, until near to the head, but hollowed 

 above and projecting below ; and the neck rising low out of the chest, even 

 lower sometimes tiian the points of the shoulders. There can scarcely be 

 any thing inore unsightly in a horse. The head of such a horse can never 

 be got down; and the bearing rein of harness must be to him a source of 

 constant torture. 



Among the muscles employed in raising the head, are the complexus 

 minores, smaller, complicated, and the recti, straight, and the oblique mus- 

 cles of the upper part of the neck, and belonging principally to the two first 

 bones of the neck, and portions of which may be seen under the tendon of 

 the splenius c, and between it and the ligament a. 



Among the muscles employed in lowering the head, some of which are 

 given in the same cut, is the steruo-maxiliaris, d, belonging to the breast- 

 bone and the upper-jaw. It can likewise be traced, although not quite dis- 

 tinctly, in the cut, page 154. It lies immediately under the skin. It arises 

 from the cartilage projecting from, or constituting the front of the breast- 

 bone, (H, p. 63), and proceeds up the neck, of no great bulk or strength; 

 for when the weight of the head is so nicely balanced by the power of the 

 ligament, a little addition to that weight will pull it down ; whereas the 

 muscles that raise the head must necessarily have very great strength, for 

 they will have all its weight to support. About three-fourths of its length 

 upward, it changes to a flat tendon, which is seen (d, p. 119) to insinuate 

 itself between the parotid and submaxillary glands, in order to be inserted 

 into the angle of the lower jaw. It is used in bending the head towards 

 the chest. 



Another muscle, the termination of which is seen, is the levator humeri, 

 raiser of the shoulder, b. This is a much larger muscle than the last, 

 because it has more duty to perform. It rises from the back of the head 

 and four first bones of the neck and the ligament of the neck, and is 

 carried down to the shoulder, mixing itself partly with some of the muscles 

 of the shoulder, and finally continued down to and terminating on the 

 humerus (J, p. 63). Its office is double : if we suppose the horse in action, 

 and the head and neck fixed points, the contraction of this muscle will 

 draw forward the shoulder and arm: if the horse be standing, and 

 the shoulder and arm be fixed points, this muscle will depress the head 

 and neck. 



Little more of a practical nature could be said of the muscles of the 

 neck, although they would be proper and interesting studies for tiie anato- 

 mist; and therefore we will only observe that they are all in pairs. One 

 of them is found on each side of the neck, and the office which we have 

 attributed to them can only be accomplisiied when botii act together ; but 

 supposing that one alone o^ the elevating muscles should act, the head 

 would be raised, but it would at the same time be turned towards that side. 



