The Hunter 63 



Personally, I prefer a rather straight shoulder-blade, with high, 

 full, sloping withers, to the most slanting shoulder-blade with low 

 withers that lets the saddle forward on the shoulders. It is not 

 enough to go strong on slanting shoulders, when it is quite as much 

 a question of the conformation of the withers, and more a ques- 

 tion of the setting on of the fore legs. That many men confound 

 withers and shoulders there can be little doubt. Nor is this all ; 

 if a horse, as is quite often the case, has slanting shoulders, and 

 also a long oblique true arm that brings the setting on of the 

 fore legs well back, you have lost at this point all you have gained 

 by the slanting shoulders. In other words, when you have a slant- 

 ing shoulder with a long oblique true arm, it may bring the fore 

 legs so far back that the center of gravity has practically been 

 moved ahead. So far, therefore, as gravity is concerned, you 

 might just as well have either a straight shoulder with high, full 

 withers, or a straight shoulder with a short upright and true arm. 

 Or, again, if you have a slanting shoulder with a long oblique 

 true arm, or a slanting shoulder with low withers, the end in 

 view has been defeated. 



I have dwelt on this at length because slanting shoulders are 

 everywhere so much in favor, as if they were the alpha and omega 

 of a hunter's conformation. 



The reason why ladies in riding cross country to hounds are so 

 uniformly successful in negotiating fences without falls is owing 

 undoubtedly to their sitting sideways on the horse ; that is to say, 

 the center of gravity of the rider is more generally brought over 

 the center of gravity of the horse than in the case of men, who, 

 riding astride, sit more forward, especially if they ride with long 



stirrups. 



HIPS 



As for hips, do not turn your back on a horse with ragged hips 

 and a sloping rump. They are not pretty or s^nnmetrical, but 

 if they carry the muscle well down to the hocks, you generally 

 find tiiat such a horse can gather his legs well under him for a 

 spring. This is one of the cliief characteristics of the Irish 

 hunter, and for fencing he has no equal. 



