THE MUSCLES AND PROPER FORM OF THE XECK. 



237 



contiiiued into a long and sharp prolongation (a sjjinous procean'), and is 

 the beginning of that ridge of bones denominated the withers (see cuts, 

 pp. 140 and below) ; and as it is the base of the column of neck bones, and 

 there must be a great pressure on it from the weight of the head and neck, 

 it is curiously contrived to rest upon and unite with the two first ribs. 



THE MUSCLES AND PROPER FORM OP THE NECK. 



The bones of the neck serve as the framework to which numerous 

 muscles concerned in the motions of the head and neck are attached. The 

 weight of the head and neck is supported by the ligament without muscular 

 aid, and without fatigue to the animal ; but in order to raise the head 

 higher, or to lower it or turn it in every direction, a complicated system 

 of muscles is necessary. Those whose office it is to raise the head are most 

 numerous and powerful, and are placed on the upper and side part of the 

 neck. The cut in p. 199 contains a few of them. 



c marks a tendon common to two of the most important of them, the 

 splenius or splint-like muscle, and the 

 complexiis major, or larger compli- 

 cated muscle. The spJenius arises 

 from the processes of all the bones of 

 the neck with the exception of the last 

 three, and posteriorly from the sides 

 of the anterior dorsal vertebras with 

 tendons running from the upper part 

 of it to the first bone of the neck, 

 and to a process of the temporal bone 

 of the head. Its action is sufficiently 

 evident, namely, very powerfully to 

 elevate the head and neck. The 

 principal beauty of the neck depends 

 on this muscle. It was admirably 

 developed in the horse of whose neck 

 the annexed cut gives an accurate 

 delineation. 



If the curve were quite regular from the poll to the withers, we 

 should call it a perfect neck. It is rather a long neck, and we do not 

 like it the less for that. In the carriage-horse, a neck that is not half 

 concealed by the collar is indispensable, so far as appearance goes ; and it 

 is only the horse with a neck of tolerable length that can bear to be reined 

 up, so as to give this part the ai'ched and beautiful appearance which 

 fashion demands. It is no detriment to the riding-horse, and there are few 

 horses of extraordinary speed that have not the neck rather long. The 

 race-horse at the top of his speed not only extends it as far as he can, that 

 the air passages may be as straight as he can make them, and that he may 

 therefore be able to breathe more freely, but the weight of the head and 

 neck, and the effect increasing with their distance from the trunk, add 

 materially to the rapidity of the animal's motion. It has been said, that a 

 horse with a long neck will bear heavy on the hand ; neither the length of 

 the neck nor even the bulk of the head has any influence in causing this. 

 They are both counterbalanced by the power of the ligament of the neck. 

 The setting on of the head is most of all connected with heavy bearing on 

 the hand, and a short-necked horse Avill bear heavHly, because, from the 

 thickness of the lower part of the neck, coiisequent on its shortness, the 

 head cannot be rightly placed, nor, genei'ally, the shoulder. 



Connected \\\t\\ the splenius muscle, and partly produced by it, are the 

 thickness and muscularity of the neck, as it springs from the shoulders, in 



