10 THE NATURALIST. 



These are the marks for estimating the age of the horse till the animal is deemed old, 

 and it may be proper to add, that there are further tokens taken from the tushes, &c. 

 The age of a horse is always calculated from the first of May, and there is considerable 

 difference in the marks between stabled horses, crib-biters, and animals usually at 

 grass. 



A full grown horse, notwithstanding the different purposes he may be intended for, 

 is required to possess some general qualifications in order to be valuable: the head 

 should be middle sized, well set on, with the branches of the lower jaw sufficiently 

 separated to give the head liberty of action ; the eyes large and rather promiment ; the 

 ear small, erect, lively ; the nostrils open, not fleshy ; the neck long, with little curve 

 along the gullet, but arched on the crest ; full below, slender near the head ; the 

 withers somewhat high, and the shoulder slanting backwards, but more vertical in pro- 

 portion if the animal is destined for draught ; the chest should be capacious, deeper in 

 horses for speed, rounder for others 5 the arm muscular, the canon bones forward, flat 

 and short ; the loins broad and the quarters long ; the thigh muscular, the calcis high, 

 and the whole hock well bent under the horse. It is in the structure of the bones of 

 the hind quarters that the principal characteristics of high bred horses are detected, and 

 the straight horizontal line of the croup gives those attached to the pelvis greater 

 length, and consequently greater angles ; whence the power of throwing the weight 

 forward is chiefly derived. 



From the different colors of the original stocks, horses are clothed in a greater diver- 

 sity of liveries than any other animals, cattle and dogs not excepted ; they are a natural 

 consequence of interminable crossings of the five great stirpes, producing combinations 

 which have caused French and Spanish writers to enumerate above sixty ; the piebald 

 and dappled find only their counterparts in the forms and shades of color in some spe- 

 cies of Seals, and it is there, also, we find the light blue grays with brown spots, of 

 which we have examples in the New Forest and in Spain ; yet, excepting the five 

 primitive, all the rest have a tendency to return to them, and sometimes it would seem 

 capriciously to resume the bay, dun, gray or black. 



The life of horses extends naturally from twenty-five to thirty years ; cases have oc- 

 curred of individuals attaining the age of more than forty j and in countries where they 

 are not tasked by constant over exertion, the period of existence is usually between 

 nineteen and twenty-one. But in some countries the destruction of these noble animals 

 is excessive ; the value of time with a commercial people, incessantly urged into 

 activity both mental and corporeal, has demanded rapidity of communication, and 

 spread an universal taste for going fast ; the fine roads have permitted horses to be sub- 

 jected to more than they can draw j betting, racing and hunting are pursued by persons 

 whose animals are not constructed for such exertions ; and violent usage in grooms, 

 stable-boys, and farm-servants is so common, that few reach the age of fifteen years, 

 and all are truly old at ten. 



In the structure of the horse, mares are always comparatively lower at the withers 

 than geldings or stallions ; these last have the neck much fuller than either of the 

 above ; their spirit is also much more noisy, and their disposition, when they meet at 

 liberty, exceedingly pugnacious ; they are commonly used for the saddle, as, for in- 

 stance, in India, two horsemen cannot venture to ride side by side without constant 

 attention, and always at some distance asunder. 



It is asserted that horses with a broad after-head, and the ears far asunder, are natu- 

 rally bolder than those whose head is narrow above the fore-lock ; some are certainly 



