LOW IN THE BACK. 187 



simile of ice again to my aid : if a sheet of water 

 could remain in or be brought to the form of 

 a chair cushion that is made high at the sides, 

 and low along the centre, and in that form be- 

 came frozen, the ice, supported by the water, 

 Avould be perhaps nearly as strong as if a straight 

 surface : it is only w^hen concavity is unsupported 

 that it becomes Aveak. 



These considerations, added to observation and 

 practical test, induce me to advise the reader not 

 to reject an otherwise clever horse merely from a 

 fear of a low^ back being unable to carry him. 



The reader may perhaps be surprised, if I state 

 that I am by no means clear, but that a low 

 backed horse may be less liable to injury of the 

 spine than the straighter ; and still more than the 

 rather convexly formed back. This idea is, how- 

 ever, of too professional a nature, be it right or 

 wrong, for me to decide upon : but I form it on 

 these grounds. 



Whenever there is elasticity, if w^e get a re- 

 quisite degree of strength with it, the elastic 

 part will, so far as itself alone is concerned, be less 

 liable to breakaore than a stiff unvieldinir one : it 

 is well known to coachmen, that a loaded coach 

 that may appear to rock or swing a little with 

 its weight, is less liable to breakage, or to upset, 

 than the stiff running one : the rope of fifty 



