58 LESSONS IN HORSE JUDGING. 



a fan and in reality is given off from the upper 

 or cordiform portion. This fanhke portion has 

 six shps, which get inserted to the spines of the 

 last six of the bones of the neck. 



In the first lesson we saw that muscle was an 

 active contractile tissue tvhich could become ex- 

 hausted, so that if the neck and head were sup- 

 ported by muscles, after a certain time, the head 

 and neck would drop. This is never the case, be- 

 cause they are supported by the ligament we 

 have been describing, which is made up of a con- 

 gregation of elastic fibres which are devoid of 

 feehng, and therefore are never tired and are 

 quite as passive as so much india rubber, that is, 

 the ligament stretches when anything stretches 

 it and recoils when the stretching force is re- 

 moved. 



The next thing I must direct your attention to 

 is that the cordiform or upper part of the liga- 

 ment is broad at the top, and that the skin of the 

 neck is separated from it by a quantity of fat im- 

 bedded in fibrous partitions. The amount of fat 

 placed upon this ligament varies greatly. In the 

 clean, light neck of the hunting gelding this fat 

 is barely represented, whilst in low-bred animals, 

 in stallions, and in those which have been cas- 

 trated, after two years of age or after the procre- 

 ative organs have assumed their functional activ- 

 ity, this fat and fibrous tissue lying along the 

 cordiform tendon on the upper surface of the 

 neck is of considerable thickness and forms a 

 'crest.' It is of course best seen in stallions, and 

 gives their neck its peculiar shape. In the 



