54 FORM AND ACTION. 



his strength, cannot make way with his load, and therefore, com- 

 pulsorily, shortens, and at the same time quickens, his step, not 

 bending and rounding his legs in action as he did when out of 

 harness, or when his draught or burthen proved but light. I well 

 remember a little strong mare I used to drive in my four-wheel 

 chaise, who stepped out remarkably well and even went with great 

 freedom upon a level road ; but who, the moment she came to any 

 ascent or hill or bad piece of road, where she perceived the draught 

 heavy, would shorten her step and go pottering along as though 

 she had all at once fallen lame in her feet. In respect to the 

 uprightness or straightness of what we may now call " harness 

 shoulders," there seems to be some connexion between their form- 

 ation and the common remark in the mouths of coachmen, " the 

 collar cannot set too upright" in position : the straight shoulder 

 affords good reason for such advice, for the scapula and collar 

 will lie nearer in the same line, act therefore more harmoniously 

 together, and the horse, in consequence, will be likely to work not 

 only more agreeably to himself but with greater effect. If this be 

 the proper view to take of draught, so far as the harness-collar 

 and the scapula are concerned, the exposition may prove the 

 means of throwing some light on the " setting" of the former : the 

 remark of the coachman is founded on experience ; he knows well 

 that, in general, the collar cannot " set too upright," because — 

 a circumstance perhaps he does not heed — -his horses are in 

 general of that description that have thick straight shoulders : 

 when, however, the shoulders happen to be oppositely formed — 

 such as are better adapted for riding than for drawing — we sub- 

 mit, the coachman's remark must fall to the ground, it being ad- 

 visable, in such a case, that the set of the collar should be oblique — • 

 correspond, in fact, with the inclination of the scapula. 



" A FINE SHOULDER" is a phrase among horse-people too often 

 apt to be misapplied. Because a horse happens to have very 

 great depth and obliquity in his shoulders, with high tapering 

 withers, he is often said to possess fine or perfect shoulders, when, 

 in reality, he probably lacks in them the very property of more 

 consequence than any other we have been considering, and that 

 is, muscularity. His shoulders are oblique and deep, and thin at 

 the withers ; but so bony are they, so deficient of flesh or muscle, 

 that the blade-bone appears as if it had no covering save the skin, 



