IJookVII. organology of the horse. 956 



resemblance to an eel stretched out This very singular character subsists also in many cf the horses of 

 Norway, and is nowhere else known." {Walker's Hebrides, vol Vi. p. 158.) " The Highland horse is 

 sometimes only nine, and seldom twelve hands high, except in some of the southern of the Hebrides, where 

 the size has been raised to thirteen or fourteen hands by selection and better feeding. Thebest of this breed 

 are handsomely shaped, have small legs, large manes, little neat heads, and are extremely active and 

 hardy. The common colours are grey, bay, and black ; the last is the favourite one." {General Report of 

 Scotland, vol. iii. p. 176.) 



Sect. II. Organology or exterior Anatomy of the Horse. 



6247. A just knowledge of the exterior conformation of the horse, to be able to form a 

 correct judgment on the relative qualities of the animal, forms the ne plus ultra of a 

 scientific horseman's aim ; but it is a branch of knowledge not to be obtained without 

 much study and experience. In considering a horse exteriorly, his age, his condition, 

 and other circumstances should be taken into the account ; without which attention it is 

 not possible to determine, with precision, the present or future state of a horse when he 

 is seen under various peculiarities. A horse of five years old, though considered as full 

 grown, yet experiences very considerable alterations of form after that period. He then 

 becomes what is termed furnished ; and all his points [i. e. his adult form), before hidden 

 in the plumpness of youth, or disguised by extreme obesity, now show themselves. From 

 the effects of muscular exertion promoting absorption, he becomes more angular, and to 

 the painter's eye, would prove more picturesque, but less beautiful. A horse like- 

 wise low in flesh and condition, is hardly the same animal as one in full flesh and 

 condition ; and again, the sleekness acquired from relaxed labour, with full and gross 

 feeding, is very unlike the robust form acquired from generous diet with correspondent 

 exertion, 



6248. The examination of the subject of organology is conveniently pursued by dividing 

 it into head, neck, trunk, or body, and extremities or legs. The greater number of well 

 proportioned horses, with the exception of the head and neck, come within a quadrangle ; 

 not one strictly equilateral as depicted by Lawrence (Richard) and Clark, but one 

 whose horizontal dimensions are usually between a twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth 

 greater than their perpendiculars. It must, however, be kept in mind, that with some 

 considerable deviations from this quadrangular form, many horses have proved superiorly 

 gifted in their powers ; and that a deviation from these proportions appears in some 

 instances, as in that of the race horse, not only favourable, but necessary also to his 

 exertions. Nature will not be limited, and the perfection of her operations is not alone 

 dependent on the arbitrary arrangement of parts, but on a harmony and accordance of 

 the whole, internal as well as external. To the artist, however, such admeasurement is 

 useful, inasmuch as it prevents any singular departure from a symmetrical appearance, 

 which is but too common among our animal draughtsmen. To the amateur it also 

 offers a convenient, though not an unerring guide. Our exemplification of the organ- 

 ology appears by placing a blood and a cart horse within the same square (Jig. 828.), by 

 which the differences between the various parts of the one and the other are readily 

 contrasted. 



6249. The organs of the head. The head of the horse is remarkable for its dimensions, 

 formed by an elongation of the jaws ; yet in him, as in most of the grazing tribes, its 

 bulk is in an inverse proportion to the length of the neck, otherwise the muscles would 

 not be able to lift it. It is an important part considered as relative to beauty alone, it 

 being in the inferior heavy breeds but little marked by grace or expression ; but in the 

 improved varieties it presents lines worthy the painter's pencil and the poet's fancy. 

 Neither is it too much to say, that in no part of the body is this amelioration of breed so 

 soon detected as in the head. Can any thing be conceived more dissimilar than the 

 small inexpressive features of the cart horse, and the bold striking ones that grace the 

 head of the blood horse ? The quick succession of movements in his pointed ears, the 

 dilatations of his expanded nostrils, or his retroverted eyes, which give fire and animation 

 to the character of his head when under the influence of any excitement. This is the 

 more worthy of remark, when it is considered that some of the principal aids to expres- 

 sion in the human countenance are wanting in the horse. Man borrows much of liis 

 facial expression from his eyebrows, and when to these the varied action of the mouth is 

 added, it amounts to more than a half of the total expression. A great accession of 

 beauty is gained in the improved breeds by the increase of the facial angle, which in 

 them is about 25, but in the heavy breeds is usually only 23 (a a a a). 



6250. The ears [b b) in the improved breeds are small and pointed ; in the heavy they are not only large 

 and ill shaped, but they frequently separate from each other : these defects gave rise to the barbarous cus- 

 tom of cropping, now happily in a great measure abolished. The ears are criteria of the spirit, as well as 

 of the temper ; we have seldom seen a horse which carried one ear forward and the other backward during 

 his work that was not hardy and lasting. Being not subject to early fatigue, he is attentive to every thing 

 around him, and directs his ears different ways to collect sound from every quarter. The ears are also 

 indications of temper, and a horse is seldom either playful or vicious but his ears are laid flat on the neck. 

 It is fortunate that we are provided with such a warning, by an animal that does not want craft to surprise 

 us, nor strength to render his resentment terrible. 



