142 HEAD AND NECK. 



Bourgelat, followed by all, or nearly all, the French writers 

 on equine conformation, adopted the length of a horse's head 

 as a measure of its height, in the proportion of i to 2-|. This 

 eminent Frenchman based his calculations on a type of horse 

 (such as the ordinary saddle nag) which was about as high at 

 the withers as it was long in the body, and did not take into 

 consideration the great differences between the respective 

 heights and lengths of animals of various classes, ranging 

 from the racer to the Shire horse. From my own observa- 

 tions, I would put the length of a horse at from 2-|- to 2^- 

 times the length of his head. 



The fact that the size of the head of the horse is propor- 

 tionate to his length of body, and not to his height at the 

 withers, accounts for the cart-horse appearing to have a 

 comparatively larger head than the thoroughbred. 



Leanness of Head.— In the lighter classes of horses, 

 the head should present a general appearance of '* leanness," 

 that is to say, the skin which covers it should be fine ; its 

 bony prominences sharply marked ; and the muscles, blood- 

 vessels, and nerves which are immediately under the skin, 

 clearly defined. 



The absence, thus indicated, of an excess of loose under- 

 lying tissue will suggest the possession of strength of muscle 

 and bone (p. 12). When the head is large and '' fleshy," 

 we may generally assume that the animal is **soft" and 

 wanting in '* blood." The presence on the head of well- 

 developed muscles, of which those of mastication are the 

 most powerful, will naturally suggest to the observer that the 

 horse has a good constitution. As pointed out by Goubaux 

 and Barrier, we must not mistake for *' leanness'* an 

 emaciated or wasted appearance of the muscles, due to old 

 age or debility. 



The Bombay Arab dealers (such as that fine judge, Ali 

 bin Abdullah, and that prince of Bedouins, the late Shaikh 

 Esa bin Curtas) regard thinness of the lower jaw at its 

 angles as a sure sign of pure desert blood. 



