CHOOSING. 31 



horse does not always give a correct measure of his 

 size ; for a very narrow horse, with his fore legs 

 close together, will be deeper than a horse with a 

 wider chest, and will look stronger when you stand 

 alongside of him, although in reality he may be 

 weaker than the other. You should, therefore, 

 always measure a horse's depth of girth with a view 

 to his width of chest also. 



A horse's back should fall immediately behind 

 his withers, and then rise gradually to the part 

 between his hip bones, and then fall slightly to the 

 tail again ; there should be a gradual, even sweep, 

 and no break or kink anywhere between his withers 

 and his tail. 



It Avill generally be found that a horse with very 

 good shoulders is one of three things, when you 

 look at him sideways — he will either be short- 

 shouldered, hollow-backed, or goose-rumped. 



By short-shouldered I mean that he will not 

 look as deep from the withers, or top of his shoul- 

 der, to the bottom of his shoulder-bone as other 

 horses. 



By hollow-backed I mean that he will be several 

 inches lower a little way behind the withers than 

 he is at the withers and loins ; and being goose- 

 rumped means having the tail set on a good deal 

 lower than the hips and loins, instead of being only 

 a little lower. 



I do not say that it is invariably the case that 



