76 ESSAYS ON HORSE SUBJECTS 



unsteadiness of the mouth; but if he is taken cau- 

 tiously and carefully with easy bits, and gradual- 

 ly brought to stand pressure, he is likely to de- 

 velop a delightfully responsive mouth. Some 

 horses, on the other hand, have thick, leathery 

 tongues, which it is almost impossible to make re- 

 sponsive, owing to their lack of sensitiveness. 

 This inherent lack of sensitiveness of mouth is oc- 

 casionally associated with a corresponding lack 

 of sensitiveness of the skin, so that the horse does 

 not feel the whip. I have had experience with 

 individuals of that sort that were free-goers and 

 determined pullers, in which there was something 

 evidently lacking in the nerves of sensation. 

 Cases are, of course, exceptional, where there 

 seems to be a general lack of sensation, but it is 

 not so rare to find a leathery mouth. 



In addition to the hyper-sensitiveness of the 

 mouth in some horses and the lack of sensitive- 

 ness in others, necessitating unusual care in mak- 

 ing their mouths, some horses have anatomical 

 defects which preclude the possibility of them 

 ever having anything like perfect mouths. Those 

 with necks below of a length disproportionate to 

 the length of the necks above, particularly if such 

 necks are deep at their points of attachment to 

 the head, it is impossible for the head to be bent 

 upon the neck so that the mouth may be respon- 

 sive. A horse formed in this way is bound to 



