THE SHOULDER, 183 



shoulders, so that their legs may be preserved as much as 

 possible from the injurious effects of concussion. It is 

 evident that cart-horses which have to labour on soft ground, 

 like that of ordinary farms, may have with advantage more 

 upright shoulders than those employed on road work. At the 

 same time, even at a walk, speed, which is a desirable quality 

 in every horse, is largely dependent on obliquity of shoulders. 



The thickness of the muscles about the shoulders should be 

 proportionate to the amount of strength which the animal 

 may be called upon to display. We may judge it by the 

 thickness of the structures just below (four or five inches) the 

 highest point of the withers ; by the width between the fore 

 legs ; by the thickness of the broadest part of the body at the 

 point of the shoulders (Figs. 274 to 277) ; by the condition 

 of the muscles which cover the shoulder-blade ; and by the 

 amount of depression there is immediately in front of the 

 shoulder-blade where it joins the neck. This dip is well 

 shown in Figs. 247, 256, and 280. The difference of level 

 between the neck and shoulder will be best observed when 

 the former is thin and the latter thick (see remarks on the 

 conformation of Cloister, p. 247). At the same time, a 

 properly shaped, heavy draught-horse will always have 

 prominent shoulders, which in him are desirable, so as to 

 give a broad surface for pressure against the collar. 



This question of thickness or thinness of shoulders is 

 very important, especially to hunting men, and has, up to the 

 present, received scanty notice from writers on horses. When 

 in the saddle we are certainly in the best position to judge 

 whether the shoulders are thick, thin, or of medium substance. 

 The first point that will strike the experienced horseman 

 when mounted, is the condition of the *' saddle muscle,^' which 

 is the name usually given by London saddlers to the muscle 

 close behind which, on each side, the points of the tree 

 should rest when the saddle is on the animal's back. In a 

 thick-shouldered horse this muscle will appear as a rounded 

 lump at a point about 4^ inches below the top of the withers 

 (Figs. 286 and <^, 287). To explain my meaning, I have given 



