THE EXTERNAL CONFORMATION OF THE HORSE. 
417 
accounted for by the increase of fat in the animal’s condition. 
We think a good substitute for the expression high and low 
withers would be, well defined or obtuse withers, the former takiim 
the place of the expression “high” the latter of the expression 
“low ; we do not pretend to say that the comparative length of 
the bones do not vary, but that the variation is not so great or 
so common as is generally supposed. 
Horses with high withers, whether they be well defined or 
obtuse, are able to perform rapid movements with more grace 
and facility, other things -being equal, than those in which the 
bones are Short, making the withers really low. This is to be 
accounted for by the fact that the long arm of a lever (the trape¬ 
zius muscle) is made longer, and hence its power to swing the 
shoulder blade backwards and forwards, like the pendufum of a 
clock, leverage is diminished to a greater or less extent. We 
are inclined to think that the view we have taken accounts for 
some horses which look as if they were low in the withers, and 
are still able to trot and perform other rapid movements with the 
greatest facility, and that in them the withers are really high, but 
they do not look so, because they are obtuse and not well defined. 
In the selection of an animal, the style of the withers should 
be well considered. When a saddle horse is to be judged the 
withers should be well defined in order that the saddle may sit 
comfortably upon the back. Horses with obtuse, round or low 
withers do not carry the saddle nicely nor its occupant in a com¬ 
fortable manner, as there is a good chance for the saddle to roll 
or become otherwise misplaced. 
If the coach horse or roadster is under consideration, then 
those with round withers are not so objectionable, but the low 
variety, that is those with short bones, are not desirable, unless 
the action of the animal is such as to warrant them. 
In draft horses there is no objection to low withers, though 
m a general way horses with this part well defined are usually 
most admired. 
It is not an uncommon thing in stallions to find an appear¬ 
ance of the withers obliterated on account of the neck comino- 
