LECTURES ON HORSES. 
63 
for muscular force. The dependent position of the head shews the 
same thing : the muscles of the neck having to sustain the weight 
of it at the end of a long lever, become in a great measure re- 
lieved of their burthen by the stretching of the neck, calling into 
action the elastic ligamentous cords running from the withers to 
the poll. In the standing posture, therefore, Nature prompts the 
animal to ease himself as much as he can by imposing more bur- 
then upon the ligamentous powers and less on the muscular ; and 
these last experience occasional relief by alternation of their states 
from extension to flexion, from contraction to relaxation. 
The posture of repose — that which the wearied horse instinc- 
tively assumes when left to himself — is to be distinguished from 
any attitude into which he may throw himself in a state of watch- 
fulness, or excitement, or alarm ; and this again is different from 
any artificial or unnatural position in which he may be placed by 
riding-masters or horse-dealers, or in which he may have been 
taught to place himself. The instant the animal’s attention be- 
comes attracted, the same instant may he be said to rouse himself 
from his dormant or listless repose, and assume more or less 
animation, simultaneously changing the standing posture for the 
natural standing position : beyond this, through the interference of 
art, the position may be changed again to what we call the arti- 
ficial standing ; and thus the three acts of standing become exem- 
plified in the same individual. The riding-master teaches the 
horse to “ stand upon all four of his legs,” in order to be ready, at 
a moment’s notice, to spring from the standing position into any 
movement or pace required of him ; the horse-dealer teaches the 
animal to stand with his fore and hind limbs stretched out in such 
manner as to “ make the most of himself” before a purchaser; 
and it is pleasing to behold with what sagacity horses who have 
been long or frequently in dealers’ hands will acquire this arti- 
ficial standing ; equally so is it to see how military horses ranged 
in their ranks will stand on the qui vive, ready for a brisk and 
sudden movement at the sound of the trumpet. 
THE ACTS OF REARING AND KICKING. 
Though the limbs are the transporting agents of the body, it is 
not mere motion of them that will effect progression, or motion 
merely of any one or two, or even three of them, without the 
other, that will produce it : all must move, and in moving change 
places, otherwise the animal will remain in the same situation. 
The movements in progression are for the most part the result of 
the alternate action of the four feet ; when the two fore legs are 
elevated into the air, the two hind remaining fixtures upon the 
