I have heard a story of a young artist who, after painting a picture of
a horse facing a storm, was not satisfied with it, and, feeling that
something was wrong, asked Landseer to look at it. Instantly the great
artist said to him, "Turn the horse around."
The cow turns her head to the storm, the horse turns his tail. Why this
difference? Because each adopts the plan best suited to its needs and
its anatomy. How much better suited is the broad, square head of the
cow, with its heavy coating of hair and its ridge of bone that supports
its horns, to face the storm than is the smooth, more nervous and
sensitive head of the horse! What a contrast between their noses and
their mode of grazing! The cow has no upper front teeth; she reaps the
grass with the scythe of her tongue, while the horse bites it off and
loves to bite the turf with it. The lip of the horse is mobile and
sensitive. Then the bovine animals fight with their heads, and the
equine with their heels. The horse is a hard and high kicker, the cow a
feeble one in comparison. The horse will kick with both hind feet, the
cow with only one. In fact, there is not much "kick" in her kind. The
tail of the cow is of less protection to her than is that of the horse
to him. Her great need of it is to fight flies, and, if attacked in the
rear, it furnishes a good hold for her enemies. Then her bony stern,
with its ridges and depressions and thin flanks, is less fit in any
encounter with storm or with beast than is her head. On the other hand,
the round, smooth, solid buttocks of the horse, with their huge masses
of muscles, his smooth flanks, and his tail--an apron of long, straight,
strong hair--are well designed to resist storm and cold. What animal is
it in Job whose neck is clothed with thunder? With the horse, it is the
hips that are so clothed. His tremendous drive is in his hips.