THE BODY AND LIMBS. 23 



these lengthened levers in the action of leaping. The racer, 

 on the contrary, is found to perform his wonderful exertions 

 without any remarkable height in his withers : in Eclipse 

 they were very low, and they are so in the majority of our 

 racing fillies and mares. Reasoning on general principles, 

 which seldom lead us into error, we should not consider 

 great height in these parts as essentials to the speed of the 

 racer. The gallop of full speed is but a succession of 

 bounds, and all animals remarkable for their rapidity in 

 this motion are found low before and high behind ; that is, 

 they are furnished with long muscular hinder extremities 

 exhibiting angular proportions acting on fore extremities, 

 which are comparatively inert as to the propelling power. 

 To the draught horse, low withers are peculiarly advan- 

 tageous, and he can better apply his powers by approximat- 

 ing his fore quarters to the ground ; for as all drawing is 

 but throwing the w^eight of the body beyond its centre, or 

 into the collar, so, the greater the weight the animal carries 

 before, and the nearer he approximates this centre, the more 

 advantageously he acts. 



The shoulder extends obliquely forward, from a little 

 below the withers to what are called among horsemen the 

 point of the shoulders ; but which point is formed by the 

 articulation of the shoulder-blade with the true arm-bone. 

 The shoulder is apt to be confounded with the withers, 

 which often leads to much error in justly appreciating the 

 power and operation of the fore quarters. The withers may 

 be high, at the same time that the shoulders may be narrow, 

 straight, and altogether badly formed. The shoulder, to be 

 perfect, should be muscular, but by no means heavy with 

 extraneous cellular matter, for it is by the muscles of the 

 shoulder that the action of the fore limbs is principally 

 effected : it is, therefore, of much consequence that the 

 muscular markings and prominences should be strong. 

 Immense muscular power is also necessary for the sus- 

 pension and connexion of these parts ; the shoulder in the 

 horse not being connected with the trunk by any liga- 

 mentous union, but wholly by a muscular fibre. Large 

 fleshy masses unite the broad expansive shoulder-blade by 

 its upper and inner surface to the ribs and withers, while 

 other powerful muscles below suspend it, as it were, from the 



