SHORT BACKED ; HIGH MOUNTED GRINDING. 17 



timid horsemen, principally on account of the easy seat a hollow hzck aff:)rds 

 Great caution in administering strong repeated diuretics should be impressed 

 upon us at the sight of a very hollow-backed patient. See Sections 53 — 5(i. 

 When the bend in the back-bone, or " hollow back," is restricted to the fore 

 part of the animal, the loins being well filled up, his built in other respects is 

 less material, to be "short in the carcase" being then an advantage; and it is 

 much greater when the bend is confined to a gentle curve, scarcely distin- 

 guishable, just behind the withers, [See middle sketch in the last cut (b)]. 

 This is considered a straight back, belonging to a light made, compact horse ; 

 he is invariably ribbed home ; and, as there then exists but a small space be- 

 tween the last rib and the hip-bone, as seen in the plate at 30 to 32, so is it 

 always accompanied by the deep chest, good hind quarters, and wide loins 

 (i. e. not pinched together), and his ribs finely curved. Horses so formed are 

 always healthy, and esteemed at first sight super-excellent, being supposed, 

 with justice, capable of doing more work than those of any other built what- 

 ever. But the gift of leaping or of great speed do not always belong to horses 

 of this form, however perfect in other respects, though health, vigour, strength, 

 and lastingness do. Such horsrs always feed well and retain their condition. 

 The inquiring reader would do right to turn back to what is said under Sec- 

 tion 10, and draw his conclusions from what is there stated. 



14. Low-buttocks generally accompany roach backs [see sketch a.] and are 

 always attended with another fault — "hind legs too straight," and incapable 

 of stepping out. A horse so formed can execute no pace tolerably, and trot- 

 ting worst of all. In the drag, such a horse steps short, and is always upon 

 the bustle, as if his legs were tied. A large head, with short thick neclc, de- 

 notes a sluggish horse, heavy in the hand, and usually " carrying low :" these 

 are faults generally attending his entire breed. When the neck is longer, the 

 case is not bettered, for then the animal is of the long-bellied kind, with thin 

 flanks and washy. As a small light head, but wide at the forehead, with ex- 

 panding nostrils, and bold prominent eyes, denotes (blood) strength of body, 

 and vigour of constitution, so the contrary may be looked for in horses which 

 have narrow foreheads, small or sunken eyes, and small arid nostrils. I 

 never saw a fine well-turned head that did not belong to a good set of legs, 

 well fixed upon the body; the correspondence goes still further, inasmuch as 

 the quantity of white in the face is commonly attended with a proportion of 

 white upon the heels, thus : a star, one white foot ; a blaze, two white feet ; 

 white face, four white legs, &c. Horses with large jaws are given to keep 

 open their mouths while at work ; and, when aged, grind their teeth more 

 than is necessary in feeding. The manner of breaking his food being, with 

 ihe horse, different from that of other animals, viz. by rubbing his under teeth 

 from right to left against the upper ones, — a motion to which the term " grind- 

 ing his corn" has l^en applied, — an old horse will sometimes continue it when 

 he has nothing to eat, thereby wearing away his teeth ; a circumstance that 

 occasions imperfect mastication and its consequences,* besides subsequently 

 leading us into error in examining his age. Hard-mouthed horses, and those 

 which champ the bit much, fall into this idle habit. 



Flat, or narrow-chested horses are subject to those attacks which lead to 

 consumption (see Section 36), and, consequently, are liable to show bad con 

 -lition ; or, it may be, that disorders of the chest do contract its capacity. In 

 Kome horses on the contrary, the cavity of the chest seems too great for its 

 contents; they are short-winded horses of one description (there being several) 



* Indigestion^ flatulency, cholic, &c. are all produced by animals swaUoving their IxA UD 

 awoken. 



