106 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



perfect freedom of their reciprocal movements. When these condi- 

 tions are not fulfilled, the head is said to be plastered on, or mal- 

 attached ; its movements are not so easy, as we observe it, more espe- 

 cially in short and thick necks. 



" The inferior attachments of the neck/ 7 says H. Bouley (loc. cit.), 

 " should be marked on each side by the slight relief which constitutes 

 the anterior border of the shoulders; on each side of the trachea! 

 border by the angle of union of the jugular gutters converging 

 towards each other above the point of the sternum ; finally, towards 

 the withers by a depression in front of the summit of this region, 

 generally not well marked. In these conditions the neck has a good 

 origin ; it is well (attached. In other words, it harmonizes with the 

 anterior parts of the trunk, of which it is a continuation. The facts 

 are not the same when the neck is meagre and thin, and its inferior 

 border forms with the chest a very pronounced angle ; when the 

 demarcation between it and the shoulders is established in an abrupt 

 and salient manner ; when, finally, the depression in front of the 

 withers is deeply marked. In such cases we say that the neck is mal- 

 attached, or, better, that it is stuck into the thorax, a very striking 

 expression, which conveys an exact idea of this defective confor- 

 mation. 77 



Since we are speaking of the inferior attachments of the neck, we 

 will describe a peculiarity which is sometimes met with, and to which, 

 for a long time, the name of cut of the spear has been given. " The 

 cut of the spear," says Garsault, 1 " is a hollowness quite deep, which 

 is seen in Turkish and Spanish horses at the junction of the neck and 

 the shoulder, sometimes higher and sometimes lower. This is consid- 

 ered as a very good mark, the cause of which is told in a fable, which 

 says that an excellent Turkish stallion received a stab from a spear in 

 that part, and that all his descendants he having been placed in the 

 stud inherited this mark of honor." 



Lafosse, in his " Dictionnaire d'hippiatrique," observes with truth 

 that this peculiarity is present as often on the left as on the right side, 

 and that it is not hereditary. Special researches have demonstrated 

 that it consists simply in a congenital atrophy of one of the dictations 

 of the arigularis muscle of the scapula. The atrophied branch leaves a 

 depression which extends to the level of its insertion on the corre- 

 sponding transverse process of the cervical vertebra. 



Movements. Considered in its relation with the locomotory 



1 Garsault, Le nouveau parfait marshal, 1770. 



