72 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



expression. If the paralysis be unilateral, one of the lips is drawn to 

 one side by the muscles which still preserve their nervous influence. 

 If it be bilateral, the aifected lip becomes pendulous. It is this which 

 we sometimes see in the inferior lip of old horses and much more rarely 

 in the young. This state is more often associated with a profound 

 debility of the organism and an atony of the muscular system in gen- 

 eral, than as a veritable paralysis, or at least as a complete inertia of 

 the organ. 



Nevertheless, the defect in question may be congenital. Del- 

 phine, an old brood-mare in the stud of Pin, suffered from paralysis 

 of the inferior lip, and all her progeny iiiherited the same infirmity ; 

 yet she was possessed of great energy and good breeding, and was not 

 inconvenienced in the least (Richard).^ 



Certain horses, whether in harness or under the saddle, at rest or 

 during exercise, have a continual and convulsive movement of the 

 inferior lip which is very ungraceful to the eye. In the language of 

 horsemen, it is said that they beat the lip. 



Again, some horses continually attempt to seize the branches of the 

 bit with the lower lip, a vicious habit capable of changing its good 

 direction. It is remedied in several ways, either by the application 

 of a leather lip-strap to the bridle, by bending the branches of the bit 

 backward, or, finally, by shaking the reins lightly at each new attempt 

 of the animal, to compel him to let go. 



The commissures of the lips, according as they are situated more or 

 less high, designate the mouth as being well, too much, or not enough 

 cleft. Tliis does not constitute a serious defect, because the bridle can 

 always be so adjusted as to prevent the bit from exerting excessive 

 pressure against the first molar tooth or the angles of the mouth. 



Most authors since Bourgelat have contended that the inferior lip 

 can prevent the pressure of the bit upon the bars by opposing too 

 great a resistance or interposing itself between the two. The former 

 then offers considerable resistance to the bit, and the animal becomes 

 hard-mouthed. M. Richard^ has amply refuted this assertion in 

 pointing out the feeble resistance which the orbicularis muscle is able 

 to offer against the bit, and in demonstrating that hard mouths result 

 ordinarily from the inexperience of the rider in using the reins or the 

 inaptitude of the horse to execute certain movements. 



On the inferior lip there exists sometimes, on each side of the 

 median line, a tuft of long curly hairs, which are called, from the 



1 Richard (du Cantal), fitude du cheval, p. 81, 6e ^d. « Ibid. 



