98 PRECEPT AND PRACTICE. 



as an animal) to exclaim, or think, ** What a brute !'* 

 A head that you may see would be with the bridle 

 and winkers oflf and the large bit out of his mouth, as 

 big as a coal-scuttle ; a bull neck set into the wither 

 without your being able to decide where the wither 

 begins or the neck ends — this fault the collar hides, 

 to ordinary view, but the judge sees it is there ; 

 narrow and consequently weak loins — this the breech- 

 ing straps and crupper hide ; miserable thin thighs, 

 bad gaskins, and equally bad hocks, and those badly 

 placed — all this, to the ordinary passer-by, is hid by 

 the splash-board and shafts. 



We now come to his body : small in the girth — 

 this does not strike one in a harness horse" like one 

 under a saddle ; short back ribs, and those a long 

 way from the hip bone — this fat and condition hide 

 (that is, condition so far as full feed and little work 

 produce a state that, with a good and glossy coat, is 

 mistaken for condition). Now, among other things, 

 short back ribs, and those placed far from the hip- 

 bone, are proofs of weakness in a general way, and, 

 if a horse has little flesh to hide the imperfection, 



