398 THE HORSE 



of the chest is secured during rapid breathing by the middle 

 portions of the ribs (especially the middle false ones) being 

 pulled forward by muscles attached to them, making them 

 pivot round in the joints they form with the spine, and in 

 some cases with the breast bone. The shoulder blade or 

 scapula is a flat spatula-like bone, with a narrow ridge or 

 spine bisecting its outer surface and dividing the muscles 

 which flex from those that extend the shoulder joint. The 

 scapula should be long in all breeds of horses, and lie closely 

 and well back on the true ribs of all saddle-horses. " For 

 safe action we should seek for oblique shoulders, sloping and 

 long pasterns, knees in which there is no tendency to ' stand 

 over,' and lightness of forehand." Oblique shoulders take the 

 jar from the fore legs, and their absence may be compen- 

 sated for by long and oblique pasterns. Great speed is not 

 dependent upon oblique shoulders, as shown by deer and 

 antelopes, which can move very quickly, having straight 

 shoulders ; but oblique shoulders withstand more wear in 

 training and at other forms of hard work. The fore limb 

 should be upright, so that a plumb-line suspended from the 

 point of the shoulder would cut the front of the coronet. The 

 knee joints of a horse that is calf-kneed or buck-kneed bend 

 further back than the perpendicular. In reference to the 

 bones of the fore limb, " the shoulder blade should be rela- 

 tively long, the humerus short, the forearm long, the cannon 

 bone short, the pastern long," and the slope of the shoulder 

 blade and pastern should follow parallel lines. A corre- 

 sponding series of inverse proportions can also be traced in 

 the hind limb, i.e., " pelvis long, thigh short, tibia long, 

 cannon bone short, and pastern long," although both hoof 

 and pastern behind are more upright than in the forehand. 

 Similarly, in the longitudinal axis of the body of the race- 

 horse, the head should be short, neck or reins long, back and 

 loins short, croup long, bones of the tail short. The back 

 and loins behind the saddle should be wide and flat, even 

 when the animal is in thin condition. The top line of 

 the croup should always be convex, unusual straightness or 

 concavity indicating weakness. A " horizontal croup and a 

 high-set tail are points of beauty in the saddle-horse," and 

 they are also indications of speed, as a horizontally placed 

 pelvis permits of full extension of the hind limbs in galloping. 



