SHOULDERS AND WITHERS. 183 



very seldom be found flexible enough to render a 

 horse pleasant to ride, if, added to this, the head 

 is so set into the neck as to make a kind of con- 

 tinued curve from the chest to the back lip. I 

 ^vould reject such a horse for riding purposes 

 without mounting. He cannot from formation 

 bring, as we say in riding term, " his head in ; " 

 that is, he cannot make his nose approach his 

 bosom ; and instead of yielding to the bit will 

 always be fighting or boring against it. We can 

 command such a horse's mouth, but not his head ; 

 and, unless we can bring the head to a proper 

 position, we can neither make a horse go hand- 

 somely or safely, so far as action is concerned, 



A moderately thin neck, and one rather inclin- 

 ing to be short than unusually long, is the sort of 

 one for both wind and pleasantry. 



SHOULDERS AND WITHERS. 



Many persons will at once reject a horse that 

 is, what is often termed, low shouldered. With 

 submission to persons using this term, it is a most 

 inappropriate one. I know what they mean by 

 it. But in using it, or when they use it, it is not 

 the shoulder they look at, but the vjither, wdiich 

 has little, indeed nothing, to do, either with the 

 action of the horse or his carrying his saddle. The 

 carrying the saddle in a handsome j^lace — that is, 



N 4 



