62 LESSONS IN HORSE JUDGING. 



' spine,' as it is called, is less in proportion in the 

 horse than it is in man, and that in the horse it is 

 not continued into a long strong process. The rea- 

 son of this difference is that the horse only uses 

 his fore extremities to walk with ; he has no * collar' 

 bone or ' clavicle,' as it is called by anatomists. 

 Now the collar bone is a long bone at the top of 

 our chests in front, shaped like the old-fashioned 

 letter s, like this/ and it has one end placed against 

 the top and side of the breast bone, but its other 

 end meets the extreme tip of this spine of the 

 scapula and props the shoulders back, and so 

 keeps our shoulders well back at all times. Were it 

 not for this bone, when, in using our arms, we 

 stretched them forward, there would be nothing to 

 prevent our two shoulders almost meeting in front. 

 It is the relative length of this bone that determines 

 the appearance of our shoulders. If growing children 

 are allowed to sit with their shoulders huddled up, 

 the two ends of this bone are unduly pressed upon, 

 and the double curve is increased and the collar 

 bone more bent, and, as a consequence, more 

 shortened, and the shoulder blades, not being duly 

 propped back, stick out behind, and the child grows 

 up ' round shouldered.' It is owing to the slightly 

 greater length of this bone which gives French- 

 women their more graceful shoulders and chest. 

 Lions, tigers, cats, &c., use their fore extremities for 

 seizing things and holding them, so that they have 

 clavicles or collar bones like men and women. A 



