12 THE HORSE. 



coarse head is a defect in every person's eye, and it has 

 no advantages to counterbalance its deformity. The 

 muzzle should be fine, and of a moderate length ; the 

 mouth invariably deep for receiving and retaining the 

 bit; and the lips rather thin and firmly compressed. 

 A fine, tight lip is a pretty sm-e indication of an active 

 temperament, and consequently affords a measure of the 

 energy and durability of the animal. Horses with short, 

 thick, flabby lips, lying wide apart, are proverbial for 

 sluggishness. The nostrils should be large, so as to be 

 capable, when open, of allowing the air to have free 

 access to the lungs. In conformity with the uniform 

 condition of the Creator's works, it will be found that 

 there is a du-ect relation between the development of 

 the nostrils and the capacity of the lungs for air. 

 Hence arises the necessity of observing the size of the 

 nostrils. Capacious lungs would be of no use, if the 

 orifice which connects them with the external atmos- 

 phere were so contracted that they could not get pro- 

 perly fiUed. The race-horse must have very wide and di- 

 latable nostrils to admit a large volume of air, with the 

 utmost freedom and greatest speed, into his widely and 

 rapidly distended lungs ; but the horse of slow work 

 can take more time in his breathing, and consequently 

 does not require such a very large nostril as the racer, 

 hunter, or steeple-chaser. Care must always be taken, 

 recollect, not to confound a naturally well-developed 

 nostril, with one which looks large in consequence of 



