EXTERNAL FORM. Ixxxvii 



arse lips, indicate a dulness of feeling in the parts, and 

 are only tolerable in the horse employed in labour. 



The muscles which cover the face should be distinctly 

 marked, and not loaded with integument and fat : The su- 

 perficial bloodvessels should be distinct, and somewhat pro- 

 minent. 



The windpipe should be prominent and large. The bones 

 of the lower jaw should be thin, and the branches between 

 which the windpipe passes should be sufficiently wide ; for, 

 otherwise, the horse will be incommoded when reined up, 

 and will be apt, accordingly, to bore upon the hand. 



The neck should be of medium symmetrical length. A 

 too great length of neck unnecessarily loads the fore-extre- 

 mities, while a too short one renders the horse unapt to the 

 guidance of the rein, incapable of easy flexure of the body, 

 ungraceful, slow, and often unsafe. All horses possessed of 

 much speed have the neck somewhat long ; and, comparing 

 the two kinds of conformation, it is better that the neck 

 shall approach to the extreme of length than of shortness. 



The bones of the neck are covered by powerful muscles 

 connected with the motions of the head and fore-arm. Pro- 

 ceeding from the head, the muscles should progressively in- 

 crease in volume to the breast, where a want of muscular ex- 

 pansion indicates a want of action. The upper part of the 

 neck, formed of the splenius and other muscles, frequently 

 termed the crest, should be sufficiently, but not excessively, 

 developed. Considerable elevation of the crest is connected 

 with high and powerful action ; but its excessive expansion 

 has relation to vigour of the fore extremities rather than to 

 speed, and hence, in the race-horse, the crest is compara- 

 tively thin. But the character is not inconsistent with the 

 power of rapid motion. The Flying Childers, one of the 

 fleetest horses that ever was upon the English turf, had the 

 crest remarkably large. 



The neck should be somewhat arched or convex, a charac- 



