THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XV, No. 176.] AUGUST 1842. [New Series, No. 8. 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S., Veterinary Surgeon 
First Life Guards. 
LECTURE IV ( continued). 
THE SHOULDER {continued). 
ALL “judges of horses” concur in the necessity, for the purposes 
of riding, for depth and obliquity of shoulder : if there be any dis- 
crepancy in opinion among such persons, it consists in one prefer- 
ring a strong, another a fine shoulder. Even this, however, can 
hardly be said to amount to any division of judgment ; for the thin 
shoulder will not, with “true judges,” gain admiration unless it 
possess depth and strength ; nor will the thick one be altogether 
approved of unless it rise at the withers ; in a word, we shall find 
what is considered by judges on both sides to constitute perfection 
of shoulder, to reside in a happy combination of depth and obli- 
quity with strength and fineness; and if we desire any confirmation 
of this, we have only to make our observations on horses known to 
ride and go as horses ought to perform — on celebrated hunters, 
horses in Leicestershire, and all our capital studs, who in form are, 
nowadays, bred as near to perfection as, probably, it is possible 
for art to attain. I say “ bred,” because perfection of shoulder, like 
all animal formation, has manifestly been greatly promoted by at- 
tention to breeding. 
In a racer — although there are race-horses enow in whom this 
formation exists and operates in its greatest beauty and perfection — 
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