THK HEAD, 247 



by pressing on the other vital organs, as a circular chest will resist 

 all efforts to expand it. If the chest is deep and capacious it can 

 expand and contract with every breath, and can thus meet any 

 extraordinary demands made upon it, provided the lungs are 

 healthy and good and the heart, air passages, and supplying pipe, 

 are all duly proportioned to them. But all these ifs and buts can 

 only be securely decided by a trial of the horse's wind power, 

 under severe exertion. We cannot look inside, and if fifty things 

 are right and one wrong, that one will put its limit on the horse's 

 breathing power, and consequently on his capacity for exertion. 



THK HEAD 



591.- — Has very much to do with the beauty of the horse, 

 and correctly read, it no doubt indicates his disposition, but as we 

 cannot see the quality, or convolutions, or proportions of the 

 brain, \^e are quite as often deceived as with the human head. We 

 have seen too that good or bad education has even more to do 

 with fixing the disposition and usefulness of a horse than it has 

 with that of a man. In the cart horse, we like rather a narrow 

 forehead, a large jaw, and we don't object to the right sort of 

 Roman nose. Every one who has seen much of cart horses, must 

 have noticed how very often the ugliest head in the stable has 

 belonged to the very best horse. In the horse for fast work, 

 although there must be large elastic nostrils, we like a rather 

 small muzzle, with the head expanding to a wide forehead between 

 the eyes, narrowing in again as it approaches the ears. But in 

 every description of horse we like the brain case — that is the 

 space between the eyes and ears — to be decidedly rounding and 

 not flat. This indicates a more docile and teachable disposition. 



592. — The upper part of the jaw bones should be deep, with 

 a wide space between them. The eye rather prominent, without 

 displaying much white, and decidedly mild. The ears should be 

 stout at the base and rather small at the points. Lively, yet 

 patiently listening, with an inquiring appearance. We like to see 

 one ear only turned to catch a sound from behind, as it indicates 

 attention without suspicion, activity without alarm. 



593. — The way the head sets on the neck is of much import- 



