260 



THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 



J", the horseman reads tlie character of his beast. Suppose 



this reader of the equine mind wanders into a famous stable 

 the day before the Derb}^ — a stable containing- several prob- 

 able or at least possible winners. The horses, eight or ten 

 of them, perhaps, have their heads out of the stalls and re- 

 g'ard the new comer with languid interest. He sees a horse 

 whose head is short from the e^'es to the ears, between the 



lines A B and U F. There is a slight concavity of 



the skull where the line C D crosses it. E i^ is not 



Fig. 158— Horse Physiognomy. 



as wide as it might be. The equine mind-reader can't tell 

 yet whether his subject hasn't both strength and speed. 

 But he knows almost to a certainty that he hasn't much 

 sense and is probably deficient in coui-age and energy. 

 Going to the next stall he sees a nag whose mouth is large 



and flabby-looking, the line I J" being of goodly lengthy 



while the nostrils, on the contrar^^ aresmalLand apparently 

 inelastic. C D and E F maj^ be generous in dimen- 

 sions, but the small nostril is a bad sign for staying quali- 



