MUSCLES AND FORM OF NECK. 139 



If tlie curve were quite regular from the poll to the withers, 

 we should call it a perfect neck. It is rather a long neck, and 

 we do not like it the less for that. In the carriage-horse, a neck 

 that is not half concealed by the collar is indispensable, so far as 

 appearance goes ; and it is only the horse with a neck of tolera- 

 ble length that will bear to be reined up, so as to give this part 

 the arched and beautiful appearance which fashion demands. It 

 is no detriment to the ridmg-horse, and there are few horses of 

 extraordinaiy speed that have not the neck rather long. The 

 race-horse at the top of" his speed not only extends it as far as he 

 can, that the air-passages may be as straight as he can make 

 them, and that he may therefore be able to breathe more freely, 

 but the weight of the head and neck, and the effect increasing 

 with their distance from the trunk, add materially to the rapidity 

 of the animal's motion. It has been said, that a horse with a long 

 neck will bear heavy on the hand ; neither the length of the neck 

 nor even the bulk of the head has any influence in causing this. 

 They are both counterbalanced by the power of the ligament of 

 the neck. The setting on of the head is most of all connected 

 with heavy bearing on the hand, and a short-necked horse will 

 bear heavily, because, from the thickness of the lower part of the 

 neck, consequent on its shortness, the head cannot be rightly 

 placed, nor, generally, the shoulder. 



However fine at the top, the neck should be muscular at the 

 bottom, or it generally indicates a weak and worthless animal. 

 It is then called a loose neck. 



The principal bulk of the lower part of the neck is composed 

 of the comiilexiis major, or larger complicated muscle. If its 

 action is habitually too powerful, the muzzle is protruded, and 

 the horse becomes what is technically called a star-gazer . He 

 IS heavy in hand, and even the martingale will not ordinarily 

 remedy the difficulty. 



Comiected with this is another unsightly deformity. The horse 

 is ewe-necked ; i. e. the neck is hollowed above, and arched be- 

 low. His head can never be fairly got down, and the bearing 

 rein of harness is a source of constant torture to him. 



The mane is a matter of some importance. In a wild state, 

 the horse has many battles to fight, and his neck, deprived of the 

 mane, would be a vulnerable part. The hair of the mane, the 

 tail, and the legs, is not shed in the same manner as that on the 

 body. It does not fall so regularly, nor so often ; for, if all were 

 shed at once, the parts would be for a long time defenceless. 



The mane is generally dressed so as to lie on the right side — 

 some persons divide it equally on both sides. For ponies, it used 

 to be cut off near the roots, only a few stumps being left to stand 

 perpendicularly. This was termed the hog-mane. The groom 



