LOW IN THE BACK. 185 



Xor is wldtb, or what some persons may term a 

 thick shoulder, to be by any means objected to, as 

 it often is. Eclipse was somewhat thick in this 

 part, and, provided the horse has action, and there 

 is a desirable obliquity of shoulder, his being, not 

 coarse, but strong across from the top of one 

 blade-bone to the other, is no imperfection ; but 

 the reverse. If a rider dismounts from a strong: 

 shouldered horse, and finds he has not been car- 

 ried pleasantly, he may say, "I was sure such a 

 f/i/cA-shouldered brute could not go." In such a 

 case, if he would look a little more into the cause, 

 he would most probably find he had been riding a 

 straic/htshouldered brute : this prevented his go- 

 ing well and safe, not the strength of shoulder. 

 A judge could have told him before mounting 

 that such a horse could not be otherwise than 

 he found him, and would have saved him the 

 trouble of trial by advising such a horse to be 

 rejected. I will not sa)', it is impossible that a 

 horse straight in the shoulder should go well and 

 safe, but, among the numberless horses I have 

 ridden, I never rode one that could, or at least 

 did. 



LOW IN THE BACK. 



The idea of such horses being extremely weak 

 in this part deters numbers from bestowing a 



