218 DRAUGHT AND HARNESS. 



man running a race in a sack, or perhaps, better still,, 

 attempting to box with his arms pinioned ; but this 

 is precisely what one sees every day, and all day long, 

 in hundreds of instances on our roads and streets 

 horses painfully shoving along, at every step they take, 

 the movable articulation of the point of the shoulder 

 against a trace which should be attached opposite to 

 the immovable point of the shoulder-blade, where it 

 would not cause the slightest inconvenience, and all 

 this perhaps whilst the driver is congratulating himself 

 on his traces being in the correct angle of traction. Is it 

 not passing strange, too, that the ' Artillerist's Manual,' 

 which gives the admirable rule we have twice quoted at 

 p. 151, should present us, at p. 130, with a drawing of 

 an off-leader, showing the trace attached to the hames 

 exactly opposite to the shoulder-joint ? And where is 

 it that horses get most frequently sore necks from the 

 collar ? Why, just within a few inches of this very 

 same unlucky spot, either higher up or lower down ; or,, 

 on the other hand, opposite the other movable end 

 that is, at the top of the shoulder-blade. We would 

 request our readers to satisfy themselves by inspection 

 as to the rotatory motion of the shoulder-blade alluded, 

 to here. It is best seen in foals and young horses, 

 especially mares, and very clearly indeed in donkeys.. 

 In old horses, especially those that have been crippled 

 by injudicious harnessing, the whole shoulder stiffens 

 and loses its natural play, so that it is less easy to 

 detect, although it always exists in some degree. 



W T hen the trace is attached to the collar very low 

 down, the upper end of the latter will very frequently 

 lose all contact with the upper part of the shoulder,, 

 and gape forwards. This, of course, has not escaped 



