SADDLIS AND SORE BACKS. l6l 



Hollow backs are associated with high withers and high loins. It is Hollow 

 a useless back for a military horse, as owing to its curve the saddle is backs, 

 unable to get a level bed on the back, and only the front and rear 

 extremities bear on the back, with the result that injury follows. 



A roach back is the converse of a hollow one, it is always a sign of Roach 

 great strength ; but as the hollow back is very comfortable for the rider, back, 

 the roach back is most uncomfortable, and such a horse may soon tire a 

 man out. 



Wide backs are those which possess a good arch to the ribs and afford Wide 

 a good wide bed for the saddle to rest on ; it is an essential formation backs, 

 for a soldier's horse, though excessive width must be avoided, as the 

 saddle will work forward on to the neck. 



Narrow backs are due to ribs possessing defective curvature ; the ribs Narrow 

 are too straight, and in consequence there is very little bearing surface backs, 

 for the saddle, and what back there is has a slope like the roof of a house, 

 while the sides are flat. A flat-sided horse, besides carrying his saddle 

 badly, is deficient in stamina and soon succumbs to fatigue. 



The appearance of muscle generally and how it is strengthened I\[uscles of 

 has been previously described (see p. 5\ and the muscles of the back back in 

 (fig. 32) are now specially considered, not from the point of view of [^ j^fie 

 the anatomist or surgeon but frorh that of the hygienist. fitting 



A saddle must not rest directly on any of the hard structure of the 

 back, be it spine or ribs : it must only rest on those parts well clothed 

 with muscle, and the only part of the back so clothed is the angular space 

 formed by the ribs and processes of the vertebrae (see figs. 27, 28) ; 

 the dotted line represents where the saddle should bear. 



In saddle fitting the muscles of the back act as a buffer to the bones Muscles 

 beneath, and so prevent injury ; where a part of the back has no a buffer 

 muscle to protect it, there the saddle cannot rest, or, if it does, injury ^° bones, 

 results. 



The importance of having well-nourished back muscles is very great ; 

 where they are large and well developed we may be certain the parts 

 beneath are sufficiently protected, where they are impoverished and weak 

 the animal is in hourly risk of injury. 



W^hen horses are working hard and underfed, one of the first places Back 

 to show muscle waste is the back. The muscles, previously convex, now shows 

 become concave until well-marked gullies form along either side of ^^^^^J^ 

 the spine, while the ribs previously hidden are now in view and can 

 be distinctly counted. 



The whole shape of the back is altered ; it is as if some new structure Changes 



had taken the place of the old, and all this is explained by the in shape 



(B 10948) L of back. 



