80 HORSES AKD RIDING. 



could not get on. If you trot him slowly on the 

 road or the grass, if his shoulders are good his fore 

 legs will feel as if they were always in front of you ; 

 if his shoulders are straight his fore legs will feel as 

 if they were mostly underneath you. 



While on the subject of riding a horse to test his 

 action I may say, that in order to detect any very 

 slight lameness you should, if it is in the hind legs, 

 put your horse in a slow trot and then sit as far 

 back in the saddle as you can ivitJiout rising. 



To test the fore legs take hold of the horse's 

 mane and stand up in your stirrups while he is 

 trotting slowly. By adopting this plan you can 

 often tell whether a horse is lame in front or be- 

 hind, and which leg he is lame of, when you cannot 

 otherwise find out. 



We now come in our survey of the horse to his 

 body, back, and ribs. The size of his body, I need 

 not say, will be influenced a good deal by the con- 

 dition he is in, and the food he is eating. A horse 

 eating green food in summer will have a bigger body 

 than when eating hay, and a fat horse will have a 

 bigger body than a thin one living on the same food. 

 But it must be remembered that a thin horse getting 

 grass will often have a bigger body than a fatter 

 horse living on hard meat, that is, hay and corn. 

 In all cases when a horse is living on dry food his 

 back ribs should be the widest part of him, and his 

 fore ribs the deepest part of him. The depth of a 



