MUSCLES OF THE EODY, OR TRUNK. 367 



tlie back part of the neck, but should taper fast and become 

 small forward, c:ivin2: the neck a slim but muscular shape back 

 of the jaws. The neck should not be loaded Avith fat ; it should 

 be made up of muscles, full and well formed, showing the 

 creases between them. Though length of head and neck are 

 A^ery desirable and very beautiful, and generally found in horses 

 of extraordinary speed, a great degree of beauty and firm 

 action may be found in a shorter neck and shorter head, if 

 combined with the same bonyness of the head and muscularity 

 of the neck just described. Of the truth of this I would refer 

 to the l^.Iorgan horses of this country. Many of the celebrated 

 trotting-horses of the United States are of this stock. 



MUSCLES OF THE BODY, OR TRUNK. ♦ 



These embrace the long, heavy muscles spread along the 

 spine or back, from the beginning of the withers backward, 

 forming the fleshy part of the withers and loins, and the mus- 

 cles spread over and between the ribs, giving form and strength 

 to the chest, and the many broad muscles which form the walls 

 of the belly, or abdomen. 



The muscles of the back are ver}^ powerful. Some fill the 

 spaces at the sides of the spines, or uj^per projections of the 

 vertebrae, or back-bones, and give the back its full, round ap- 

 pearance. Others are seated beneath the spine on its inner 

 side. These muscles are principally attached to the spines, or 

 upward projections, and side projections, or processes, of the 

 vertebrae, and to the bodies of these bones themselves, and to 

 the bones of' the pelvis, or basin, behind. These muscles give 

 strength to the back, and are the principal muscles brought 

 into action in rearing and kicking. 



The principal of these muscles is the longissimus dorsi, or 

 long muscle of the back. It lies on the upper and side parts 

 of the back and loins, being attached as far forward as the 

 fourth bone of the neck, and then to different parts of all the 

 bones of the spine, and to the upper part of the last twelve 



