HARNESS. 127 



disadvantage. Collar-makers who understand their business, 

 understand the conformation of horses' necks and shoulders, 

 and know where to attach the traces to the hames. Where 

 they do not, even when the collar fits, if the traces are attached 

 too low they will draw the collar away from the upper part of 

 the shoulders. When this is found to be the case, the obvious 

 remedy is to shift the point of ' draft ' until an even bearing is 

 obtained. Ignorant people adopt two remedies, one of which 

 partly conceals, while the other aggravates instead of curing 

 the error. The first is to curve the upper part of the collar 

 backwards ; this, if not carried to excess is harmless. The 

 other is to lead a strap back from near the top of the collar to 

 the trace buckle, which practically converts the front end of 

 the trace into a fork whose points are attached to the hames, 

 opposite to the two movable ends of the shoulder-blades ; so 

 that, in fact, the play of this bone is effectually checked at 

 both ends alternately. The trace should be attached as nearly 

 as possible opposite to the immovable part of the shoulder- 

 blade : that is, to the centre of the bone, which is about an 

 inch higher than the hame-rings or hooks of the majority of 

 wholesale-made collars. 



The traces are attached to the hames in the manner already 

 indicated, or by other means. Perhaps the best, because the 

 most convenient, is the French plan, in which a piece like a 

 hammer-head is fixed to each hame, and at the end of the trace 

 is a slot or loop which passes sideways over the projection, so 

 that when pulled straight it is firmly retained. This con- 

 trivance allows the trace to play easily, and the traces can be 

 readily disengaged from the hames, so that a horse can be 

 released from the traces by one person without leaving the 

 animal's head. 



Chafed shoulders should be carefully guarded against in all 

 horses, but in young ones more particularly, as it may make 

 them jib, or so badly scar the skin as to render it liable to 



