LESSONS IN HORSE JUDGING 61 



wards and forwards, and wo liavo sinco seen that 

 whether it is straight or curved depends upon the 

 action or inaction of certain muscles. When the 

 horse is standing quietly at rest the elastic liga- 

 ment simply suspends the head and neck, and in 

 doing so the bones of the neck are nearly 

 straight, having only the faintest possible curve, 

 or in other words, the neck at rest is at its 

 straightest. When the neck is not at rest, the 

 bones of the neck will be bent according to the 

 attitude of the horse, and, as we have seen, the 

 muscles filling the upper triangle, being inserted 

 into the hindmost bones of the neck, are most 

 concerned in altering its shape. 



Eeferring to Fig. 7, B, we find that the hind- 

 most side of the upper triangle depicted in Fig. 7, 

 A, depends for its depth upon the length of the 

 ' spines ' of the bones of the vertebral column of 

 the foremost part of the back. This part, horse- 

 men know as the ^withers.' It therefore follows 

 that the higher the withers the greater the power 

 of raising and bending upwards and backwards 

 the bones of the neck, or in other words, the 

 higher the withers the greater the poiver of hold- 

 ing up the head and neck. So that with high 

 withers, that is, with a deep triangle, the large 

 muscles of this region not only act with the least 

 expenditure of power, but the efficiency of space 

 from above downwards enables large muscles to 

 occupy this region without making the neck 

 thick, because great and powerful muscles can 

 be stowed away in a space which though narrow 

 is very deep; whereas for the same bulk, and as 



