CHAPTER XIIL 



HORSE PHYSIOGNOMY. 



An Ingenious Theory of Mind Reading Applied to Many 

 Conspicuous Race Track Favorites — Peculiarities of the 

 Features Which Correspond with Weil-Known Qualities 

 of the Horse. 



*' Horses are so much like men," said a shrewd Union 

 Club man the other day, ^' that many of the proverbs made 

 for their riders apply equally well to the nag-s, and even the 

 g-eneral laws of ph3^siog-nom3^ may be studied out in a stable 

 with results almost as satisfactory^ as they would be in a 

 drawing-room. You can tell — or most people think they 

 can, at least — the character of a man by looking- at his face. 

 I believe a practised eye can learn from the study of a 

 racer's head what the character of his pace will be. It 

 mig'ht even come to pass that a study of the heads of the 

 contesting" beasts would enable an expert to pick out the 

 winner beforehand. Certain I am, at all events, that a 

 horse's character is generally written in his features as in- 

 delibly as is a man's." 



There is a venerable superstition that the front view of 

 the averag-e horse's head presents to the e^^e, not averse to 

 seeing it, the general outlines of a coffin. The idea is, of 

 course, purely fanciful. Much, iiowever, may be learned 

 from the study of the equine features as shown in the ac- 

 companying cut, Fig. 158. Glancing at the dimensions in- 

 dicated by the dotted lines A Bj C D^ E i^and I 



