10 
BULLETIN 487, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
comparative judging is practiced it is especially important that the 
teacher know the animals and their relative merits well. 
If students have had no experience in judging horses it will be well 
to use the first judging period in learning how to approach the ani- 
mal, in checking up what they have learned about naming the parts, 
and in going over the card with the instructor. If the class has been 
studying light horses the first period may be spent in comparing a 
draft animal with a light-harness horse. 
Fig. 5. — Student feeling legs of a horse to determine quality. 
Bow to examine a horse. — The horse should be led out to a well- 
lighted place where there is plenty of room for the students to walk 
all around it at some distance. In judging horses the eye is the chief 
factor in determining values, the hand being used merely to assist the 
eye. (Fig. 5.) Students will need to use their hands at first, espe- 
cially in determining quality as relating to the coat and in detecting 
unsoundness. After some experience the eye will reveal much that 
required the use of the hand at first. The value of accurate first im- 
pressions should be emphasized. If the student has an ideal draft 
