THE FRAMEWORK OF THE HORSE. 25 



wards till his seat conies in contact with the withers. 

 Let him then stand still, and the horse, especially if a 

 young or untrained one, will most probably shove for- 

 ward his hind or fore legs in one of those two ways. 



There remains a third case for consideration namely, 

 where the horse, being weighted back to the line G H, 

 Plate I., brings his hind legs under him up to the line 

 I K, l>ut with the hocks bent. This is the position into 

 which manege -horses have to be brought for certain 

 definite purposes, the general object being to enable 

 them to make short turns on the hind quarters or croup, 

 the forehand turning round this latter ; whereas, with 

 a horse weighted on the centre line E F, Plate I., the 

 hind and fore quarters both turn equally round a com- 

 mon point, and with one weighted principally on the 

 forehand, the hind quarters will turn round the former. 



Now, in order to avoid drawing false conclusions 

 from these facts, we must take another view of the 

 question. What we have hitherto inquired into is, the 

 effect of certain modes of distributing the weight on a 

 horse's back when in a state of rest on the position of 

 his legs with regard to that weight ; but the really im- 

 portant thing to know is, how these various modes in- 

 fluence the horse's action. It was, however, necessary 

 to enter into the preliminary inquiry, because most of 

 the conditions governing a horse's attitude in a state of 

 rest continue to be equally imperative after action has 

 commenced, and some even more so ; for it is more dan- 

 gerous to the horse to lose his balance when in motion, 

 especially at high degrees of speed, than when stand- 

 ing still. 



We may put the questions to be resolved as follows : 

 1st, How does the distribution of the weight to be 



