s 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
resisting parts of the structure — the parts most capable of bearing 
superincumbent weight. In some horses these arcs are more 
conspicuous than in others. In horses with crested necks and roach 
backs they are most so; and such horses, on this account, are 
reckoned strong and able to carry a greater load. There can be no 
doubt but that roach-backed horses evince the greatest power 
under the riders. I have experienced it myself on many occasions. 
It is likewise, I believe, equally true that curved or crest-necked 
horses have augmented power in their necks. 
An attentive consideration of the figure of the spine will shew 
the proper place for the seat of the rider : this obviously must be 
the part where the animal can best support his burden, and yet not 
have his action in progression at all impeded. English horsemen 
are apt to sit in too forward a situation upon their horses; foreigners 
— Germans in particular — too backward. The saddle should be 
placed back enough not to interfere with the motions of the 
shoulder-blade, and forward enough for the pummel to meet the 
rise or summit of the withers; the girths crossing at a sufficient 
distance behind the elbows not to rub against or fret them in 
action. In the living horse there is a dip in the back, greater or 
less, immediately behind the withers ; a place the rider upon the 
bare back naturally slips into for ease and comfort, and particu- 
larly if he happen to be mounted upon a rough trotter. This, 
Nature seems to say, is the place for the saddle. 
We have looked at the arcs or arches of the spine ; let us now 
take a view of the dips, or reversed arcs. There is but one, but 
it is a very remarkable one. It commences at the lower part of the 
neck, extends backward through the interspace between the shoul- 
der-blades, and terminates where the spine emerges from behind 
the blade-bones. This must be the weakest part of the spine ; 
and for this reason Nature has placed it in a situation where it 
cannot possibly have to support any burthen. No man ever 
dreamed of riding upon the summit of, or in front of, the withers. 
This remarkable dip, or downward curve, appears to owe its ex- 
istence to the two arcs afore-noticed. Had the spine been con- 
stituted of one continued arc from end to end, the head must have 
been inflected downwards, without the power of elevation ; vision 
no longer could have proved useful in directing the animal on his 
way ; the back would have been of a most awkward form for the 
carriage of burthen; the cavities of the chest and belly of a most in- 
convenient shape and the limbs of enormous length. Had the spine 
been made straight from head to tail, no elongation of it, and with 
difficulty any shortening of it, could have been produced, the con- 
sequences of which must have been a great diminution of that 
elasticity and power of adjustment for which, in its present form, 
the structure is so useful and admirable. The beauty of the neck, 
the freedom of erection and depression of the head, the faculty of 
