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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: from the chest, like a boar's, but, like that of a game-cock rather,
it should shoot upwards to the crest, and be slack[17] along the
curvature; whilst the head should be bony and the jawbone small. In
this way the neck will be well in front of the rider, and the eye will
command what lies before the horse's feet. A horse, moreover, of this
build, however spirited, will be least capable of overmastering the
rider,[18] since it is not by arching but by stretching out his neck
and head that a horse endeavours to assert his power.[19]
[16] Lit. "the thighs below the shoulder-blades" are distinguished
from "the thighs below the tail." They correspond respectively to
our "arms" (i.e. forearms) and "gaskins," and anatomically
On Horsemanship |
