76 WARRANTY OF 



causes of secondary importance, yet such as must be 

 attended to. 



The nostril is one of the most important parts 

 of the horse to be attended to : it is much overlooked. 

 There are many horses that are called dull, sorry jades, 

 who will be found to go for a short distance good- 

 humouredly and at a good pace, and then draw in, 

 bearing a severe punishment rather than improve 

 their pace. " What a dull, lazy brute it is ! " cries 

 its owner, but in reality he is neither dull nor lazy. 

 The cause of his difficulty lies in the smallness of his 

 nostril, which is not sufficiently large to permit enough 

 air to pass up for purifying the blood as it passes 

 through the animal's lungs. The consequence is, that 

 with every increase of speed the animal suffers acute 

 pain. This too small nostril is the cause of slowness 

 or dulness in all inferiorly bred horses. 



Where horses are well bred, dulness is more likely to 

 arise from a contraction of the bones than from a 

 diminutive nostril. 



Where speed and continuous labour, therefore, are 

 required, the above two provocations to dulness should 

 be well looked into : even in thorough-bred horses we 

 find some imperfection or other; and it should be 

 borne in mind that a horse falling short of qualities 

 sufficient for making him a first-rate racer, may make 

 a good country plate horse, hunter, or hackney. For 

 the hundredth time I say Adapt a horse to the work 



