THE LEGS— THE SHOULDER. 43 



thus convey the superincumbent weight to the ground. This 

 peculiarity in the direction given to the different bones we shall 

 find has its uses. One grand object to be accomplished in the 

 formation of the limbs was, to save them from the effects of the 

 concussion which, in sustaining so great a weight as the body in 

 action — occasionally surcharged too with a burthen in addition — 

 must otherwise have fractured their component bones ; nay, crushed 

 such as are of a fragile texture into pieces. Another object, in 

 the angular formation of the pasterns, has been, as we shall dis- 

 cover hereafter, to enable them, in a measure, to compensate for all 

 absence of any thing like active foot-hold property in the hoofs of 

 the horse. 



The Shoulder. 



No individual part of the animal frame, in the estimation of 

 horse-people, calls for greater demands on their judgment than 

 this : a good or a bad shoulder is held to be of paramount import- 

 ance to the animal's riding or going in such a form as is pleasant 

 to his rider, and as tells in action and safety as regards himself. 

 The connoisseur steps up to the horse for sale, in his stall, and by 

 simply carrying his eye over his shoulder and placing his hand 

 upon his withers, determines at once his qualifications, either for 

 saddle or harness, and whether he be such a nag as is likely to suit 

 him for the purposes he requires. Before, however, I attempt to 

 shew by what art this "judge of horses" so summarily and surely 

 arrives at this point of discernment, it will be necessary for us, 

 first, to dissect the shoulder and examine its component parts; 

 and, subsequently, to endeavour to analyze and understand its 

 action in progression. 



In the skeleton, the shoulder consists of two bones — the scapula 

 and the humerus. The scapula or blade-bone — the same that we 

 find in a shoulder of mutton— is the proper shoulder-bone; the only 

 one in man and the monkey-tribe which constitutes the shoulder ; 

 the humerus being — as its name indicates — the arm bone : in the 

 horse, however, and in other quadrupeds, both bones go to the 

 formation of the part we call the shoulder. In an anatomical 

 point of view, the fore-leg of the quadruped corresponds with 



