28 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDEli. 



/ 



glad to see that in this instance, too, fashion is be- 

 ginning to side with reason and good taste. 



The lips of the horse are his hands ; they serve 

 both as organs of touch and as instruments of pre- 

 hension, as may be seen when the animal is feeding. 

 He gathers up his corn with them, and collects the 

 grass into a tuft before he bites it. The lips should 

 be thin, but firm and regularly closed. Flabby, pen- 

 dulous lips indicate weakness or old age, or dulness 

 and sluggishness. 



It is thought, perhaps, with some degree of truth, 

 that indications of character may be drawn from the 

 shape of the nose : but the rules in this case are the 

 reverse of those applicable in judging of human noses ; 

 for, in the horse, the prominent Roman nose bespeaks 

 an easy, good-tempered kind of beast, but rather of 

 a plebeian order of mind and body ; the horse with a 

 straight, or Grecian nose, may be good or bad tem- 

 pered, but not often either to any great excess ; but 

 a hollow nose (a cocked one, as we should say, in 

 speaking of the human face) generally indicates some 

 breeding, especially if the head is small, but occa- 

 sionally accompanied by a vicious, uncontrollable 

 disposition. " There is another way, however," says 

 Mr. Youatt, " in which the nasal bones do more cer- 

 tainly indicate the breed ; viz., by their comparative 



