THE WITHERS AND BACK. 13 



towards the bottom, but enter the chest above the 

 points of the shoulders ; if it does not, you will have 

 neither speed nor lightness of action : it must also 

 curve a little where the head is set on, or he will pull 

 against your arm, and feel heavy in hand, consequent- 

 ly this will never answer for a charger or hunter, and 

 it is nearly as bad for a racer. There must be no 

 superfluous thickness on the upper part of the shoul- 

 der-blade : the division of the neck and shoulder must 

 be distinctly marked ; any extra bone at the upper 

 part of the shoulder-blade, filling up the line of de- 

 marcation between it and the neck, always makes a 

 horse go more or less stiff, and this is particularly 

 observable in thick necks ; yet, there must be sufficient 

 muscle below to prevent the neck being a " loose 

 neck." If he has a neck like a deer it is ugly, and 

 does not afford so free a passage to his breath : the 

 deer necks, however, with all the flesh set below, are 

 not so bad as those where the upper surface is thick, 

 and it is all set on above. Ewe necks, if only slight- 

 ly ewed, and light, and not entering the chest low 

 down, are rather favourable than objectionable for a 

 racer. * The rounder a neck is the better ; and if 

 only shallow from mane to under surface, there is no 

 fear then of its being too muscular from side to side. 

 No thick neck is fit for the saddle, and a bull-neck is 

 fit for nothing but a bullock-garree. 



THE WITHERS AND BACK. 



High withers you will not always find/ but they 

 should undoubtedly rise a full inch higher than the 



* Darvill, vol. ii. p. 10. I have a great aversion to a high-crested race-horse. 



