124 HISTORY OF THE 



too strong, or proportionably too much for their 

 feet and legs. Such horses not only seldom re- 

 main long in training, but they cannot remain long 

 in condition, without their becoming stale in them- 

 selves, as also on their legs, and those are my 

 reasons for objecting to very large carcassed horses. 



To return to the fore-extremities. The 



shoulders commence from a little below the withers. 

 They should be most particularly well back ; should 

 be deep, broad, and muscularly strong ; yet those 

 muscular parts should appear to the eye as being 

 moderately so, that is, not unproportionably 

 loaded. Tliese muscles should be distinctly seen , 

 there should be no appearance of fat, or as it is 

 technically termed, ' adipose membrane.' The 

 shoulders cannot well be too oblique in their de- 

 scent to the front of the chest ; here, on each side, a 

 joint is formed by the lower part of the scapula or 

 shoulder-blade being united with the upper part 

 of the humerus or arm bone. Those joints thus 

 formed are usually called the points of the shoul- 

 ders, which points should appear straight or level. 

 There should be no coarse, projecting, or heavy 

 appearance about the points of the shoulders of 

 such horses as are intended to race ; nor indeed does 

 this often occur, unless where it happens that the 

 chest or counter of the horse is unproportionably 

 wide. In taking a front view of the chest, it 

 should appear moderate as to breadth, and if its 

 prominency is at all to the extreme, it should be in 



