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THE EXTERNAL CONFORMATION OF THE HORSE. 
421 
admire any horse whose front legs, to use a horsey expression, 
look as if they “came out of the same hole.” 
The shape of the entire chest, apart from the front legs and 
muscles connecting them to it, has been aptly compared to a 
truncated cone with its apex turned forwards and the truncated 
or cutaway part following the line of the lower extremities of the 
floating ribs. The ribs form a large portion of the bony frame 
work of the chest, and to them it largely owes its shape. There 
are usually 18 pairs of them, which vary considerably in size and 
shape in all animals, whether they be draft or saddle horses, and 
it is generally conceded that the merits, as well as some 
peculiarities of the individual, depend upon the shape and length 
of them. The first few pairs, those that are underneath the 
shoulder blade are rather straight, and those behind it are some¬ 
what bent. The ribs increase in curvature from the- first pair, 
which are nearly straight, to the last pair, which are so much 
curved that they describe a considerable portion of the circum¬ 
ference of a circle; they increase in length from the first to about 
the ninth pair, and from this pair to the last they get shorter; it 
is this progressive shortening which gives the truncated appear¬ 
ance to the osseous walls of the chest. The ninth pair of ribs, 
being longer than the rest and being situated where they are, 
gives depth to the girth, the point that is so much admired, 
especially in horses used for any saddle purpose. 
Professor Williams, one of our eminent veterinary authorities, 
says that “shallow chested horses are prone to heaves.” In all 
horses the ribs should be well sprung, or have a well defined 
angle; that is to say, from about the 7th or 8th pair backwards 
they should come out from the spine in a manner approaching 
the horizontal, the dip downwards and soon recurve inwards, 
towards the central plane of the body. The angle is the part 
where the rib dips downwards, and when it is well defined it is a 
good point for several reasons; in the first place it shows that 
there is plenty of room for the implantation of the large muscle 
(longissimus dorsi) already referred to when speaking of the loins, 
then the angle does away with the flat sides so often found in 
