52 THE HORSE. 



this rule. The points of the shoulders are further apart, 

 but, above all, the width is furnished with excoriations 

 which settle into the collar, these horses progressing with 

 less speed in their motions because they maintain their 

 equilibrium on a larger basis. 



The arm should descend from the shoulder, and be 

 situated in the vertical plane. The chest measure is 

 taken externally from one upper prominence of the 

 humerus to the other. The point of the shoulder 

 (vertical to the perpendicular) is within this measure of 

 the chest. It may exceed on each side by eight centi- 

 meters the limits of its articulation with the arm, the 

 humerus projecting the entire thickness of its anterior 

 tuberosity beyond the scapulum. 



We have found forty-six centimeters of chest 

 measurement in a vigorous dray-horse ; this measure- 

 ment can certainly be exceeded. It is, nevertheless, as 

 well to note that the strongest charger submitted to us 

 had only forty-two centimeters. 



In our African measurements, taken upon the repro- 

 ductive stallions of the province of Oran, the chest 

 measurement varied from 35 to 40 centimeters, one horse, 

 1 metre 60 cent, high, attaining 42 centimeters. 



The muscles uniting the chest of a sound horse with 

 the limbs (ars) should be well formed and separated by a 

 conformation {inter-ars) which in its centre surrounds the 

 edge of the sternum, rising in a protuberance in the case 

 of those horses which have the ribs flat, the chest nar- 

 rowly compressed by the points of the arms and the 

 elbows deep seated. The chest must not be confounded 

 with the breast when allusion is made to its narrowness. 



In succession to a fine chest, the xiphoid region 

 behind the elbow and below the ribs is preceded by a 

 well-defined protuberance. 



The shoulder is especially important with regard to 

 its length and direction ; it is the omoplate or scapulum, 

 terminated at the superior portion by a cartilage covered 

 with muscles ; this flat and triangular bone does not adhere 

 to the thorax by any osseous attachment, but only through 

 muscles and ligaments, which, by their elasticity, contend 

 against the reaction of rapid motions. It rests upon the 

 highest apophysis of the dorsal vertebrae, while permit- 



