36 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



and laid over with great layers and masses of muscle ; 

 none the worse, but all the better, if they reach up as if 

 they would overlap even the withers. What we want 

 in this locality of the animal's frame is substance^ quan- 

 titij. Some admire thin shoulders : not I. Such 

 shoulders look best when you start on a long drive : 

 they don't look so well after you have made sixty miles, 

 with ten more still to make. Light fore-quarters mean 

 iceaJc fore-quarters. A horse has to lift liimself every 

 step he takes, remember : and this is hard work when 

 continued for hours, mile after mile ; and nothing less 

 than a splendid muscular development about the 

 shQulder will enable him to do it. But be sure in your 

 inspection that the thick, strong look of the shoulder 

 formation is owing to the presence of muscle, and not to 

 the fact, as is often the case, that the shoulder-blades are 

 set loosely on to the frame, and wide apart. This is a 

 vicious conformation for a horse, and a sure evidence 

 of weakness in the fore-quarters, from which no diet, or 

 care on the part of the owner, can ever deliver him. 

 Hun your fingers under the upper point of the scapula^ 

 and see if it is set dose in to the spinal column and ribs : 

 if it is, and the horse still ''looks thick" through the 

 shoulders, buy him ; if not, look farther. 



We will now proceed to the examination of the fore- 

 Icf^: ; and in this fore-le*]: are two bones to which I wish 

 to call especial attention, — the fore-arm, or radius, as it 

 is sometimes called, and the large metacarpal or canon 

 bone, as it is popularly named. Lying between these, at 



