SHAPE. 1 7 



pointed out as a good one, is not a good one — the 

 horse's owner only thinks it is. Or again, a man 

 looks at a horse's shoulder, and then, in order to 

 form an estimate of it, he goes and looks at a great 

 many other horses' shoulders, and finds that his 

 horse's is as good as the average, and therefore 

 concludes it is a good shoulder, and still the horse 

 does not go right. The reason of this is that a good 

 shoulder is a much rarer thing than he imagines, 

 and that none of the horses he has looked at have 

 had good shoulders, whereas he has naturally 

 concluded that they could not all have been bad, 

 which was not a correct conclusion. Therefore, if 

 you are doubtful as to a horse's shoulder, don't go 

 and look at another horse's shoulder, and particularly 

 not one of a horse belonging to the same owner as 

 the first, for if he is not a good judge of a shoulder 

 he is just as likely to buy two horses with indifferent 

 shoulders as one; but take some other means of 

 finding out. 



Now, there are three ways of finding out what 

 a horse's shoulder is like. Mrst, looking at him 

 when he is standing still ; secondly, watching him 

 while in motion ; and thirdly, riding him yourself and 

 feeling his action. Of these plans all should be 

 used, but the third is better than the second, and 

 the second better than the first. 



We will beo^in with the first method of examinino- 

 the horse, namely, when he is standing still. 







