22 FORM AND ACTION. 



as detracting from the beauty of its possessor, or actually rendering 

 him plain or ugly, and, consequently, as a sufficient reason to reject 

 the purchase of such a horse. It does not follow that, because a 

 head is large, it be plain or ugly, although we shall very often find 

 these qualities combined : a coarse, vulgar, large head, with a 

 countenance possessing neither breed nor sagacity, but rather ex- 

 pressive of ill-temperedness, is certainly enough to condemn the 

 unfortunate owner of it, be his other qualifications what they may; 

 but a head which, although large, shews shapeliness, and some 

 breeding and sagacity, and withal has a good-tempered front, ought 

 not to be despised on account of its magnitude. A frequent ac- 

 companiment of a large head is, what is called, 



A ROMAN Nose ; and this, with many persons, constitutes an 

 additional objection to it : for my own part, however, I do not carry 

 dislike to this formation so far as is commonly done. I do not 

 think, myself, that roman-nosed horses are in general ill-tempered, 

 although low bred ; nor have I found them inclined to vice : in- 

 deed, I can call to mind instances in which horses with such heads 

 have turned out very good of their kind. It is, however, as being 

 the very reverse in form of the blood or Arabian head, a decisive 

 mark of low or rather no breeding, and therefore can only be tole- 

 rated in half or coarse-bred horses. 



A SMALL Head is almost peculiar to the well-bred horse : we 

 rarely see it unless in conjunction with breeding; and yet there 

 may be a vulgarity about its make and expression which, were it 

 not for its diminished size, we should consider rank and objection- 

 able. It may have neither the forehead, nor the muzzle, nor the jowl, 

 of the true blood head. In a racer such would be regarded as vulgar, 

 and give rise to suspicions of pedigree; in a half-bred horse its 

 smallness might, and probably would, tend to enhance his estima- 

 tion ; though, when the countenance did not warrant it, very likely 

 most unjustifiably. Generally speaking, however, a small head 

 turns out to be 



A BLOOD Head — that which the nearest approaches the Arabian, 

 and yet has now become so congenerous with, and characteristic of, 

 our own breed of race-horses, that it may be said to be the peculiar 

 attribute of the thorough-bred horse. Of all heads this is the one to 

 be lauded and valued. There can be no doubt about family when this 



