THE EXTERNAL CONFORMATION OF THE HORSE. 
319 
difficult if not impossible for the musles which control them to 
act in a proper manner. Again the bones of the nose are 
sometimes concave, giving the animal a dish-faced appearance, 
which in extreme cases may also interfere with respiration, by 
decreasing certain diameters of the nasal chambers, but it is 
only in very rare cases that the merits of the animal are affected 
by the shape of the nose; notwithstanding this, however, the 
shape of the nose is a very important point, for it goes a long 
way in giving a pleasing or disagreeable expression to the head. 
The nostrils (Plate II, Fig. 1, 4^-4^) are the external 
openings of the nasal chambers; they are composed largely of 
a fine skin and cartilage or gristle, and lined by a delicate mem¬ 
brane which in health and during repose should be of a rose 
pink cblor; exercise or disease alter the color of this membrane 
considerably. The openings should be large and easily dilated; 
if they are small and composed of thick tissues which do not 
dilate readily, the horse will most likely prove defective when it 
comes to severe exertion. 
The muzzle (Plate I, 1) of the horse is a region somewhat 
indefinitely spoken of as the end of the nose, but to define its 
limits I regard it as that part of the head extending from an 
imaginary line drawn around the lower portion of it and in its 
course passing over the angle of commissures of the mouth, all 
below this line to be included in the muzzle. The outline of 
this region does not seem to make any difference to the animal 
as far as its merits are concerned, but from the artistic standpoint 
it must not be coarse and expanded, but fine and inclined to be 
pointed; to express this some horsemen say the animal “should 
be able to drink out of a wine glass.” 
The mouth splits the last region into- two parts. It should 
be of moderate size, not deep enough to remind one of the 
mouth of an alligator, nor so shallow that it resembles the 
mouth of a sheep; it should be bounded, as it were, by moder¬ 
ately firm lips. We do not think that its size or shape has any¬ 
thing to do with the general utility of the animal. 
The cheek forms a large portion of the lateral aspect of the 
