LESSONS IN HORSE JUDGING. 93 



ing the hind quarters. If point 1 be placed high 

 up on a level with point 2, it gives the hips a rug- 

 ged, coarse appearance, as in Fig. 12, the large, 

 rugged point being all the more conspicuous. 

 Then again, if point 3 be placed very low down, 

 it gives the quarters a drooping appearance, 

 therefore we have to regard the relations of 

 these three points to two axes, one axis is the 

 long axis of the body generally, and may be 

 represented by the line a 6, which we shall call 

 the axis of the ant ero -posterior obliquity; the 

 other axis is represented by the dotted line be- 

 tween points 2 and 3, which we shall call the 

 axis of the lateral obliquity. 



Seeing that point 2 is fixed always, being 

 bound dow^n by unyielding ligaments to the solid 

 portion of the back bone, called the sacrum, and 

 the sacrum is, as we have seen, a part of, and a 

 continuation of the back bone, it follows that 

 when this ilio-ischium alters its relation to the 

 line a b (axis of antero-posterior obliquity) it is 

 the point 3 which is affected and lifted up so as 

 to form straight quarters as in the Arab; droop- 

 ing quarters as in the cob and trotting horse, or a 

 medium as in the hunter class. 



Again, when the lateral obliquity is affected we 

 may regard the points 2 and 3 as being fixed, or 

 what is better, regard the dotted line 2 3 as a 

 door post on which the bone ilio-ischium is 

 swung, then it is evident that it is the point 1, 

 and with it the joint 4, that is affected, the 

 former most so, and we get the level ragged hips 

 well seen in the 'bus horse, where the point 1 is 



