220 DRAUGHT AND HARNESS. 



look after, let us examine for a moment which of his 

 members he brings into action in draught, how he 

 uses them, and in what direction the effort is made. 

 Plate I., opposite to the title-page, shows us the 

 shoulder-blade, but it cannot, of course, exhibit the 

 manner in which this bone is attached to the remainder 

 of the framework of the machine, the muscles by 

 which this is affected being mostly hid beneath the 

 bone itself; some, however, are visible in Plate II. 

 (opposite p. 43), as also some others whose function 

 it evidently is to cause, on the one hand, the lower 

 end of the shoulder-blade, which is articulated (jointed) 

 with the arm-bone, to move forwards at each step taken 

 by the horse ; whilst, on the other hand, the muscles 

 that descend from the back and withers at the same 

 time cause the upper end of this bone to move back- 

 wards, so that the shoulder-blade in fact rotates on its 

 centre, ivhich is fixed, whilst the upper and lower ends 

 are movable. Every judge of horses knows perfectly 

 well the great value that attaches to a long shoulder- 

 blade, because the longer the arms of the lever above 

 and below the central fixed j)oint or fulcrum, the 

 more powerful will be the action. 



Now it seems scarcely necessary to point out that 

 the use of " breast harness," as it is called, which one 

 sees everywhere in the east of Europe except in Rus- 

 sia, or the attachment of the trace so low down on the 

 hames, when a collar is used, as to bring the pull 

 opposite,or nearly so, to the articulation of the shoulder- 

 blade with the arm-bone, is perfectly analogous to a 

 man running a race in a sack, or perhaps, better still, 

 attempting to box with his arms pinioned ; but this 

 is precisely what one sees every day, and all day long, 

 in hundreds of instances on our roads and streets — 



