HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 
691 
proceed from a superior organization produced by the 
assorting and joining the similar parts in combination. 
The qualities of the male require a similar examination ; 
for though the best animals are usually kept for the purpose 
of propagation, yet a discrimination is essentially necessary. 
The animal must be clean-legged, with a flat, thin bone ; 
barrel rounded, and carcase rather light; lofty, oblique 
shoulders, tapering withers, arched neck, and a small head ; 
eye impetuous, but, at the same time, placid ; ears fine and 
quick in motion, jawbone narrow, and the muzzle tapering, 
colour black or black-brown ; the hind legs white a little 
above the fetlock, with a white dot on the forehead, and a 
white stripe down the face are no objection, but any further 
mixture of colours must be rejected. It is a sign of hardi- 
hood when the legs are darker in colour than the body. The 
grey colour of the horse is fashionable ; but, unless the colour 
is very dark, it becomes white in age, and experience has 
shown that colours having even a degree of white in the com- 
position denote feebleness and a slight delicacy in the con- 
stitution of the animal. The black-brown or dark-bay seems 
to be hardiest of all colours ; and an animal of that sort, 
when well bred and of uniform colour throughout, shows a 
production of skill and judgment. 
An extreme attenuation of the parts of an organized body 
is as bad as the gross composition of it ; for, however de- 
sirable the refinement may be, substance or the necessary 
bulk must be retained, not only in the horse, which requires 
strength to sustain exertion, but in all the animals that are 
used in the easy purposes of producing fat and flesh. It is 
more valuable in the horse, because the deficiency cannot 
be supplied by the addition of number : one animal has its 
prescribed performance to execute, and must be independent 
in itself — the other animals can be increased to make up the 
required amount . — Mark Lane Express. 
THE HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 
By Chiron, M.R.C.Y.S. 
The first inhabitants of the earth no doubt regarded the 
horse solely as an object of prey. They would meet it when 
they roamed across the valleys or rested near the streams. 
Those parts of the land which the horse would naturally 
choose, man likewise, for obvious reasons, would select; nor 
could it be long before the beast which instinct told to shun 
