12 A COUNTRY READER. 



front legs in the hedge or rail, and fall on his 

 head the other side, and might break his own 

 neck and yours into the bargain. 



You can thus at once understand how impor- 

 tant it is that a riding horse's hocks should be 

 clean and strong, and the quarters muscular, 

 well-shaped, and powerful. 



There is another important point in a riding 

 horse. The pastern joints should be long and 

 flexible. There is nothing more graceful to 

 watch in the movements of a horse than the 

 working of good riding pasterns. These pasterns 

 ought to be long and flexible, not upright or 

 directly over the foot, and the motion ought 

 to be as easy as the springs of the most perfectly 

 balanced armchair. It is the flexible and yielding 

 action of these pasterns that gives ease and com- 

 fort in riding. When you hear the expression 

 " Riding him was like sitting in an armchair," 

 you may be quite sure that the horse of which 

 that was said was well and gracefully made, with 

 flexible, long, yielding pasterns. 



The pasterns of a cart horse are straight 

 and directly above the foot, short, and with 

 little give in them. The consequence of this 

 formation is, that if you were to trot, canter, 

 or gallop a cart horse, the motion would 

 shake you all to pieces, as the expression is, 

 which of course means that the motion would 



