364 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
rather short shoulder, provided it possesses the necessary sub- 
stance or muscularity, to be advantageous : laborious draught does 
not admit either of a horse taking long steps or of going at any 
but a slow pace ; and on abstract mechanical principles, a horse 
whose shoulder is short and upright is capable of supporting more 
weight upon his fore limbs than another in whom it is lengthy and 
oblique : the sharper the angle formed between the scapula and 
the humerus, and again between the humerus and radius, the 
weaker, as props of support, must the fore limbs be considered. 
A horse, therefore, with a short upright shoulder is, cceteris pari- 
bus , actually stronger in his fore parts than one possessing what 
we might call a good or handsome shoulder. Here, in fact, as in 
many other instances that might be mentioned, we have on the 
one side, action , — and with it spring — on the other, strength ; and, 
as I said before, for cart or dray horses, where heavy draught is 
required, or for animals wanted to carry heavy loads, the short 
and upright shoulder is to be preferred to the lengthy and oblique 
structure. 
The connoisseur is quite correct in his observation — “ Such a 
horse cannot ride, short and straight — for the two properties are 
commonly associated — as his shoulders are but let him not on 
this account reject the animal as useless : it is, as I said before, the 
sort of shoulder for harness, and for supporting weight, providing 
it possesses the required muscularity, and providing the horse has 
action with it : for, be it observed here, though action may be re- 
garded as the natural product of an oblique shoulder, yet are there 
many instances where it is found to result from opposite conforma- 
tions, as well as instances of its absence where one would from ap- 
pearances prognosticate it to be present. This discrepancy between 
form and action it is that is so often baffling our judgment and 
furnishing us with physiological problems which, on too many 
occasions, we find ourselves unable to solve : nevertheless, the 
subject, intricate and difficult as it is, shall receive some attention 
when I come to speak of “ action.” 
Let the action of the horse be what it may, however, should 
the shoulders be upright we may be certain of the loss of spring 
in his movements being such as to make him any thing but easy 
or accommodating in his movements to his rider : he is complained 
of as being “ a rough trotter” — “ a bone-setter;” and the higher 
his action happens to be, the greater will be the concussion. Mr. 
Youatt has compared the spring produced by the play of the 
scapula upon the humerus to the spring of a carriage ; and in its 
operation it is a happy illustration of this piece of animal me- 
chanism : the only difference being that in the coach-spring the 
elasticity resides in the steel of which the spring is manufactured ; 
