192 The Arabian Horse, 



of early promise, never improv^e or show to advantage 

 at maturity. A small head is not necessarily a beautiful 

 or good head, although smallness is very often among 

 horses of even racing blood the only recommendation, 

 for the head may still be vulgar in appearance and very 

 deficient. 



Now, certainly, there is no head like the Arabian's. 

 It is the true index to his character and form. Thus 

 writes a member of the Veterinary profession. ' Fire 

 and sagacity, blood and action, speed and bottom, are 

 all the natural attributes of a horse having such a head.' 

 But the Arabian horse alone possesses it. The Arabian's 

 is not altogether a small head, it is, on the contrary, 

 large in all parts containing the working and essential 

 organs, it is small in those parts only which connect 

 these essential organs. The same professional man 

 says 'that which is set down as the handsomest of 

 heads, turns out to be, on examination, the most service- 

 able.' Such being the case with the head of the 

 Arabian, the index, so is it also with the rest of his 

 body, every part is in harmony and proportion ; he is a 

 large horse in every essential point and part of action 

 and motion ; as no other horse has such a head, so no 

 other horse possesses so fine and perfect a form. The 

 Arabian is identical with utility. In this is his rare 

 beauty. 



What we call the thorough-bred horse, in spite of the 

 great esteem in which he is held, cannot be called the 

 saddle horse of the country. How icw ever ride one. 

 Look through a stud of hunters, how rarely a thorough- 



