2 THE HORSE. 
naturally find his way into Egypt, and through Arabia to Persia, Tartary, 
and Greece, ultimately reaching Great Britain ; but in what century he 
was introduced there we are quite at a loss to conjecture. 
THE GREEK HORSE. 
OF THE PRECISE FORM of the Horse of Scripture we have no account, 
beyond the glowing language of Job, which will apply to almost any 
variety possessing the average spirit of the species. The horse of the 
Greeks is far better known, being handed down to us in the writings of 
Xenophon, and preserved in the marble friezes of the Parthenon, which 
are now removed to our own National Museum. ‘The above Greek writer, 
in giving his advice on the purchase of a horse, says, ‘‘ On examining the 
feet, it is befitting first to look to the horny portion of the hoofs, for those 
horses which have the horn thick are far superior in their feet to those 
which have it thin. Nor will it be well, if one fail next to observe 
whether the hoofs be upright both before and behind, or low and flat to 
the ground ; for high hoofs keep the frog at a distance from the earth, 
while the flat tread with equal pressure on the soft and hard parts of the 
foot, as is the case with bandy-legged men. And Simon justly observes 
that well-footed horses can be known by the sound of their tramp, for the 
hollow hoof rings like a cymbal when it strikes the solid earth. But 
having begun from below, let us ascend to the other parts of the body. 
It is needful then, that the parts above the hoof and below the fetlocks be 
not too erect like those of the goat, for legs of this kind being stiff and 
inflexible, are apt to jar the rider, and are more liable to inflammation. The 
bones must not, however, be too low and springy, for in that case, the 
fetlocks are liable to be abraded and wounded, if the horse be gallopped 
over clods or stones. The bones of the shanks should be thick, for these 
are the columns which support the body, but they should not have the 
veins and flesh thick likewise ; for if they have, when the horse shall be 
gallopped in difficult ground, they will necessarily be filled with blood, 
and will become varicose, so that the shanks will be thickened, and the 
skin be distended and relaxed from the bone ; and when this is the case, 
it often follows that the back sinew gives way and renders the horse lame. 
But if the horse, when in action, bend his knees flexibly at a walk, you 
may judge that he will have his legs flexible when in full canter ; for all 
horses as they increase in years increase in the flexibility of the knee. 
And flexible goers are esteemed highly, and with justice, for such horses 
are much less liable to blunder or to stumble than those which have rigid, 
unbending joints. But if the arms below the shoulder-blades be thick and. 
muscular, they appear stronger and handsomer, as is the case also with a 
man. ‘The breast also should be broad, as well for beauty as for strength, 
and because it causes a handsomer action of the fore-legs, which do not 
then interfere, but are carried wide apart. And again, the neck ought not 
to be set on like that of a boar, horizontally from the chest, but like that 
of a game-cock, should be upright towards the crest, and slack towards the 
flexure ; and the head, being long, should have a small and narrow jaw 
‘bone, so that the neck shall be in front of the rider, and that the eye shall 
lcok down on what is before the feet. A horse thus made will be the 
least likely to run violently away, even if he be very high-spirited, for 
horses do not attempt to run away by bringing in, but by thrusting out, 
their heads and necks. It is also very necessary to observe whether the 
meuth be fine or hard on both sides, or on one or the other. For horses 
