SLOPE OF SHOULDER IN CART-HORSES. 213 



practical men like Mr. G. M, Sexton, Secretary of the 

 English Cart-horse Society. He admires " the shoulder well 

 let down into the chest, and with a moderate slope ; it is not 

 necessary to be too oblique, as with a hunter or a race-horse, 

 but just sufficient to ensure free action of the fore legs, 

 encased with plenty of muscle, which will enable him to lean 

 into the collar .... It is essential that he should be a free, 

 fast walker .... Action means power, time and money." 

 Mr. F. Street, in The History of the Shire Horse, advocates, 

 " Shoulders well thrown back." Mr. Thomas Dykes, late 

 Secretary of the Clydesdale Horse Society, remarks in the 

 Stud Book of that breed, that " the shoulder should be more 

 oblique than in the English draught-horse. This, indeed, is 

 one of the distinctive features of the Clydesdale, as to his 

 formation of shoulder is largely owing his long, quick step, 

 for y/hich he is so justly admired. The upright shoulder of 

 the English cart-horse may certainly give greater power in 

 the collar, but if shortness and slowness of step be considered, 

 this cannot be called an advantage. The English horse, 

 besides, is more accustomed to sheer dragging and to working 

 in chains, while his Scottish rival is chiefly employed in the 

 two-wheeled cart, which occasions a considerable amount of 

 weight being balanced on the animal's back. A medium 

 slanted shoulder gives a horse, in such circumstances, an 

 advantage ; and doubtless those who carted the minerals of 

 Lanarkshire in ante-railroad days, found this formation well 

 adapted for their purpose. Even yet no one will affirm that 

 it is unsuited to the traffic of the day, if he will only take the 

 opportunity offered for forming an opinion by the sight of the 

 Clydesdale horses yoked to cart or lorry in the streets of 

 Glasgow." Mr. Reynolds, M.R.C.V.S., in his Essay on 



