100 HOW TO BUY A HOESE. 



form of the neck and setting on of the head are essential 

 not onlj to the beauty of the animal, but to the facility 

 and pleasure of riding or driving him ; hence, a horse with, 

 an ill-shaped, short, stubborn neck, or an ill-set-on bead, 

 cannot, by any possibility be a pleasant-mouthed horse, or 

 an easy one to manage. The neck should be moderately 

 long, convexly arched above from the shoulders to the 

 crest, thin where it joins the head, and so set on that, 

 when yielding to the pressure of the bit, it forms a semi- 

 circle, like a bended bow, and brings the chin downward 

 and inward until it nearly touches the chest. Horses so 

 made are always manageable to the hand. The converse 

 of this neck, which is concave above and struts out at the 

 windpipe like a cock's thrapple, is the worst possible form ; 

 and horses so made almost invariably throw up their heads 

 at a pull, and are those most exceptionable of brutes, regu- 

 lar star-gazers. The head should be rather small, lean, 

 bony, not beefy, in the jowl ; broad between the eyes ; 

 and rather concave, or what is called basin-faced, than 

 Eoman-nosed between the eyes and nostrils. The ears 

 should be fine, small and pointed ; the eyes large, clear 

 and prominent, and the nostrils wide and well opened. A 

 horse so framed cannot fail, if free from physical defects, 

 constitutional disease and vice, to be a good one for any 

 purpose — degrees of strength, lightness and speed being 

 weighed in accordance with the purpose for which he is 

 desired. 



We shall proceed to point out some of those more 

 prominent defects and ailments to be. found in horses 

 commonly offered for sale, and a few simple plans for de- 

 tecting them, under ordinaiy circumstances, which, where 

 resort is had to no villainous jockeying, will be found, in 

 most cases, sufficient to an ordinarily acute observer. 



