CHAP. I.] INDICATIONS OF AGE. 547 



short, or thick or thin. The crest being slightly 

 curved is always accompanied by distinctly marked 

 windpipe. No horse with a bad shoulder can carry 

 his rider with ease and pleasure on the road, though 

 a large one be requisite for harness, or a very ob- 

 lique one belong to a speedy horse ; because it is 

 the hind legs that send the animal along, as was 

 eminently the case with Eclipse. See pages 26, 

 88 — 60, of Book I., where many other points to 

 our present purpose are discussed. 



As to bodily health, also, the reader will not 

 have far to look to enable himself to judge how 

 any animal is affected which he may desire to pur- 

 chase. The whole volume now in his hands is de- 

 voted to a perspicacious description of the functions 

 of animal life, and of their derangement. As to his 

 wind, the reader will turn to page 98, &c. 



AGE. 



General appearance bespeaks the age of every 

 animal, to those who have much practice in ascer- 

 taining that point, and whose interest may be said 

 to sharpen their judgment: in the horse we are 

 enabled to make a fair estimate of his years from 

 the birth, to nearly twenty, by means of its teeth, 

 but then we should guard ourselves against a num- 

 ber of deceptious tricks that are practised on the 

 unwary. 



A certain juvenility of countenance and springi- 

 ness of action, legs long compared to the carcass, 



