32 HOESES AND RIDING. 



a good- shouldered horse comes under one of these 

 denominations, for that I have no means of ascer- 

 taining ; I will only say that of all the horses I have 

 seen I never remember seeing one with very good 

 shoulders, that was not one of the three. 



Of these three I should prefer a hollow back, if 

 I had my choice. A horse with a goose-rump has a 

 more or less unsightly appearance in proportion to 

 the amount of inclination of the hind quarters; while 

 a short-shouldered horse, though I believe he is 

 really as strong as other horses in proportion, always 

 looks lighter and weaker to the eye, in his fore 

 quarter, than he should do. 



We now come to the horse's hind quarters. There 

 are two unsoundnesses in the hind legs which horses 

 are more subject to than any others. They are both 

 in the hocks, that is, the joints which correspond 

 to the knees in the fore legs, and both are easily 

 detected. One of these species of unsoundness is 

 called having curbs, the other spavins. I shall 

 describe both of these in the chaj)ter devoted to 

 unsoundness, and will not, therefore, treat of them 

 here. 



Looking sideways at a horse, his hind quarters 

 should look broad and level, from the hip-bone to 

 the tail and hock. 



His hocks should look broad and flat, and not 

 round ; his pasterns, that is, the ankle joints, should 

 be in a perpendicular line under the point of his 



