50 ELEMENTS OF HIPPOLOGY. 



wide at the nostrils. It should be wide from the eye to the 

 angle of the jaw; wide under the jaw, wide at the base of the 

 skull (where the head and neck join). The nose should be 

 straight; the nostrils large, wide, and without many hairs. 

 The fleshy borders of the nostrils should be thin, firm, and 

 sensitive. 



The ears should be small, fine, and nervously alert. In 

 changing position from front to rear, they should describe small 

 circles. They should not droop to right and left. 



Horses possess very acute sense of hearing, and the ears, 

 large and funnel-shaped, locate the direction of the origin of 

 noises by rotating until the maximum sound is received. "As 

 flight (running away) is the horse's chief natural means of self- 

 protection, he has great ability in turning his ears to the rear 

 without altering the forward position of his head. In a pitched 

 battle with carnivorous enemies, wild horses employ their eyes 

 and ears, as a rule, in a backward direction, while using their hind 

 feet as weapons of assault; and even when making a forward 

 rush at an enemy, they almost always 'put back' their ears. 

 The fact of a horse looking backwards is at once made manifest 

 by his showing 'the whites of his eyes.' These actions of eyes 

 and ears are so closely connected in the horse with fear and 

 anger that he often performs them without any direct incentive 

 when influenced by these feelings. Hence, all experienced horse- 

 men regard an unprovoked putting back of the horse's ears and 

 showing of the whites of his eyes as a reliable warning to 'look 

 out.' " 



It is tq be remarked that the signs of warning above men- 

 tioned are usually accompanied by a contracting and flattening 

 of the nostrils. 



The ill-bred horse shows a heavy head, narrow brain- 

 space, contracted jaws, coarse throat-latch, and loosely hung, in- 

 sensitive ears. His muzzle is set thickly with coarse hairs, has 



small nostrils, and too much flesh in the lips and margins of the 

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