124 



BITS AND BITTING. 



ness and inflexibility ; it will, however, suffice for our 

 present purpose to point out two extreme eases, the 

 one of form — the ewe-neck ; the other of want of sta- 

 bility — the long, straight, thin neck, scantily clothed 

 with flabby muscles. The annexed figure shows how 

 the direction of the pull of the reins is modified in 

 each instance, and how this in its turn changes the 



Fig. 6. 



direction in which the neck acts on the back. We 

 see that with the exaggerated ewe-neck the lever 

 action goes downwards under the wiithers immediately 

 on to the fore legs ; with the long thin neck that bends 

 throughout like a fishing-rod (as also with all horses 



broken and bitted on Baucher's principle), it goes up- 

 wards through the withers into the air, in both of 

 these cases missing altogether the centre of motion ; 



