POINTS OF THE HORSE
Though you will probably never find just the horse you want
for your particular purpose, that is no reason for not knowing
something about the ideal horse.
There must be some intelligent and rational notions in regard to
a horse if you are to choose one. It is better to know what one
wants, and to keep it clear in mind, in this world, even if one
never gets it. It is as sure as anything can be that the man who
does not know what he wants will not get it.
Probably the best way to know a good horse is to study attentively
a fine specimen of harness-horse (Plate IX.), polo pony (Plate
VII.), saddle-horse (Plate VIII.), coach-horse, light-harness horse
(Plate XIII.), children's pony (Plates XI., XII.), and carry the
type in your mind's eye for reference (Plate XXX.).
A man learns to know a good book by years of intelligent study of
good books; he comes to know a good picture by seeing the best
pictures. The man who has seen champion Lord Lismore knows forever
after what an Irish setter ought to look like; the man who has
seen Pierre Lorillard's Geneva knows what a light-weight Llewellyn
setter ought to look like.
No instrument has been invented which can teach a man to know a
good book, a good picture, a good dog, a good horse, or a good
woman. No such instrument will ever be invented, and that is what
makes life so surprisingly unexpected, interesting, and exciting.
We may deplore our ignorance, but it is precisely this which keeps
us all alive.
To begin with, then, the head of the ideal horse should be lean,
the skin fine, the bones prominent, the muscles well developed,
showing the masticating apparatus in good working order. The space
between the jaws underneath should be broad and well hollowed out
There is a saying that a man should be able to put his clinched
fist there, but such a test would require a very unhorsemanlike
hand. Remember that a horse breathes through his nose, and that the
air passages from nostrils to windpipe always must have space. The
windpipe should be large and well defined in its detachment from
the neck. It is preferable that his profile should be Grecian, or
straight, rather than either concave or convex. He should be broad
between the eyes for three reasons: first, because that forehead
is the roof over the spaces through which he breathes; second,
because to it are attached the muscles by which he opens and shuts
his mouth; third, because this space also contains the brain. The
eye should not be conspicuously small, denoting trickiness, nor
unduly prominent, known among horsemen as the "buck eye," and often
denoting defective vision. It should be set well up in the head,
and when looked into should not show too much white, and should
be clear. The eyelids should be thin and comparatively without
wrinkles. The lips should be thin and flexible, and without undue
length, either above or below.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--TEETH OF HORSE]
The ears should be lean, and the skin and hair on them fine. A
quick, decisive movement of the ears gives an air of readiness and
determination and usually implies those qualities. A lop-eared,
hanging-lipped animal may turn out useful, just as men with faces
like Socrates and Savonarola turned out to be saints; but in buying
horses and trusting men it is better to go by general laws than by
exceptions.
The head should be set on to the neck to give, what is very hard
to describe, but easy to recognize, viz. an appearance as though
the neck controlled the head, and not as though head and neck were
all of one piece. At this juncture of head and neck the distance
between the throat and poll should, as compared with the size of
the neck elsewhere, be small.
The shoulders, not only for a saddle-horse, but for the
harness-horse as well, should be sloping (Plate VIII.). Put a
saddle on half a dozen different horses one after the other and
note where the stirrup-leathers fall, _i.e._ how far behind
the fore legs. If you have no other way of knowing whether the
horse you are looking at has straight or oblique shoulders, this
will tell you infallibly. Remember that about this question of
shoulders, as about most other points of the horse, much nonsense
is talked by the slovenly omniscient, of whom there is a multitude
in the horse world. For though, as a rule, a horse can trot and
gallop and walk with straight shoulders, he can do none of these
exercises, except the last (that not fast) comfortably to himself
with straight shoulders. Remember, in examining the shoulder of
a horse, that there is the shoulder-blade and also the short
bone (humerus) connecting the shoulder-blade with the upper bone
of the leg. This shorter bone slopes backward and downward. The
shoulder-blade is the better the more it slants, this shorter bone
is the better the less it slants. A good horse, whether saddler,
road-horse, or harness-horse, steps from the shoulder, not from the
knee. Do not be deceived by the up-and-down action from the knee,
which is often taken to mean free and high action. The contrary is
true. Such a horse can travel all day on a tinplate.
[Illustration: PLATE VII.--POLO PONY]
[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--LIGHT-HARNESS HORSE]
The ribs should be well rounded from above to below, should be
definitely separated, and of full length. A horse with flat, short
ribs near together must, anatomically, be lacking in power. The
chest should be deep, but not excessively wide. The depth of the
chest measured around should be large. When a horse is pointed out
to you as being "well ribbed up," this does not mean that a line
drawn from the bottom of his chest along his belly should slope
abruptly upward like a greyhound; on the contrary, the loins and
back, at the point slightly behind where the cantle of a saddle
would come, should be broad, flat, and powerful-looking, and there
should be no appearance of being tucked in, or tucked up, at the
hinder end of the back and loins. A line drawn around the horse's
body from the top of the withers to the elbow-joint, and from the
point of the hip to the stifle-joint, would include between them
where the horse lives, and this valuable space should be roomy and
enclosed in muscular, but elastic, walls. If you put a tape around
a well-developed and well-bred polo pony 14.2 in height, around his
barrel just behind his fore legs, he will measure 66 to 68 inches;
around his barrel just in front of his hind legs 61 to 63 inches.
The same measurements for a well-bred horse 15.2 will be from 70
to 73 inches, and from 65 to 67 inches respectively. These are
the proportions of an animal "well ribbed up" in the best sense.
"Tucked up" or "tucked in" would mean that the measurements are
smaller in proportion, behind. In looking over your prospective
horse, therefore, see that his body be well rounded out not
only in front but also behind, so that the last ribs look to be
long, well rounded, and having but a small space--two or three
fingers--between themselves and the point of the hip. Depth,
shortness, and roundness of body are the essentials (Plate VII.).
As for the legs, the upper bone should be long in proportion to
the lower or cannon-bone, and should be large and well supplied
with muscle. The elbows should stand out far enough from the body
to insure freedom of action. The knee should be wide from side to
side, flat in front, and thick from before to behind. The leg just
below the knee should not look disproportionately small, or "tied
in" as it is called, but should be as large as other parts of the
lower limb. The tendons that run down behind the cannon-bone should
not adhere closely just below the knee. This bone (cannon-bone)
between the knee and the fetlock should be short, straight, and
strong. The fetlock--the upper and lower pastern bones--should
be of moderate length and neither too sloping nor too straight.
Out of a number of horses those with the best pasterns were those
who stood the following simple test: Drop a line with a weight on
it from the shoulder opposite the middle of the leg; in the case
of the perfect pastern the line should end immediately behind the
hoof. If the line drops in front of the heels of the hoof, the
pastern is too straight; if behind, the pastern is too flexible.
The hoof of the horse corresponds to the claw or nail in other
animals, and is made so that it forms a solid, tough, horny case
around the expanded end of the toe. This non-sensitive substance
renews itself from within as friction and work wear it away.
The feet of the horse should be moderately large, with the heels
open and the frogs sound and with no sign of contraction. Big,
spreading, awkward-looking feet mean weight to lift, coarse
breeding, and usually a dull, heavy disposition. Smallish, round
hoofs mean just the contrary.
Behind, the horse should have long and wide hips, with no
appearance of raggedness, the stifle and thigh strong and long, and
the hind quarters well let down, and not turned in nor turned out.
The hind feet should be under the end of the croup, and the hocks
and fetlocks should be a little back of a line dropped from the
buttocks. The hock should have plenty of bone, be neatly outlined,
wide, and thick. The bones below the hock should be flat, the
tendons well developed and standing out from the bone, the feet and
pasterns as in front.
The dock of the tail should be large and strong. Muscular
development there, means proportionate strength all along the
spine. The tail should be set on high, and be carried firmly and
away from the quarters. A fat, awkward tail is a mark of poor
breeding. The tail of the well-bred horse usually tapers off toward
the end.
As a well-known Continental breaker and trainer of horses phrases
it: "I like a handsome head, long and light neck, prominent
withers, short and strong back and loins, long croup, long and
oblique shoulders, close coupling between the point of the hip
and the last rib, hocks well let down, short cannon-bones, long
forearms, and the pasterns fairly long. A horse should be close to
the ground, which he will be when the distance from the brisket to
the ground will be equal to that from the withers to the brisket.
A horse which is high off the ground is generally clumsy in his
movements and liable to stumble." An old-time writer on the subject
of the horse claims that a good horse should have: three qualities
of a woman,--a broad breast, round hips, and a long mane; three of
a lion,--countenance, courage, and fire; three of a bullock,--the
eye, the nostrils, and the joints; three of a sheep,--the nose,
gentleness, and patience; three of a mule,--strength, constancy,
and foot; three of a deer,--head, legs, and short hair; three of a
wolf,--throat, neck, and hearing; three of a fox,--ear, tail, and
trot; three of a serpent,--memory, sight, and turning; and three of
a hare or cat,--running, walking, and suppleness.
[Illustration: PLATE IX.--HARNESS TYPE]
[Illustration: PLATE X.--FLYING CLOUD, HARNESS TYPE]
Xenophon writes: "The neck should not be thrown out from the chest
like a boar's, but like a cock's should rise straight up to the
poll and be slim at the bend, while the head, though bony, should
have but a small jaw. The neck would then protect the rider, and
the eye see what lies before the feet."
One cannot go to buy a horse with a tape-measure, but certain
proportions are well enough to keep in mind. The length of the head
of a well-proportioned horse is almost equal to the distance: (1)
from the top of the withers to the point of the shoulder; (2) from
the lowest point of the back to the abdomen; (3) from the point of
the stifle to the point of the hock; (4) from the point of the hock
to the lower level of the hoof; (5) from the shoulder-blade to the
point of the haunch. Two and a half times the length of the head
gives: (1) the height of the withers and the height of the croup
above the ground, and (2) very nearly the length from the point of
the shoulder to the extreme of the buttock (Plate XVIII).
One should never judge a man or a horse by his defects and
weaknesses, but rather by his strong points and his general
proportions. Any political campaign will teach the absolute
impossibility, not to say imbecility, of any or all the candidates;
and yet one or another of them is fairly certain to give us a
respectable government. Tammany has been known to elect an upright
mayor; Reform has been known to elect a weak one. There have been
trotters and runners of surprising records with numerous defects of
build, and we all have one or more equine paragons in the stable
that are for sale at a moderate price.
None the less, there are certain defects which should be constantly
kept in mind. They are, beginning at the head: a coarse, heavy
head, a thick, short neck, a small, sunken eye, a long back, a
hollow back (though there have been good racers with sway-backs),
flat sides, too much length between last rib and hind quarters (a
mare, as compared with a horse, has, as a rule, a lighter neck,
a broader pelvis, is higher behind and slacker in the loins),
prominent and bony hips, low at the withers, a shallow chest,
fore legs too close together and not straight, very straight or
very bent pasterns and hocks, much split up between the quarters,
tail put on too low and hanging close to the quarters, flat feet,
over-big feet, contracted feet.
[Illustration: PLATE XI.--CHILDREN'S PONY]
[Illustration: PLATE XII.--CHILDREN'S PONY]
Of the age of a horse, after eight years, only those who have
given much time and study to the subject can determine anything
very accurately. The receding of the gums and wear and tear of the
teeth, of course, are indubitable signs of age. The lower jaw,
too, as a horse advances in years, tends to bend outward, making
an angle more and more acute rather than an obtuse angle. The
cross-sections of the teeth, too, are smaller as the teeth grow up
from the gums to supply the parts worn away. Up to the age of six
years the age of the horse can be determined fairly accurately, but
even then difference in food and care make a marked difference in
the wear on the teeth.
The young foal has two and sometimes three temporary molars in
each jaw (Plate V.). When about twelve months old another molar
appears (Plate V.) which is permanent, and before the completion
of the second year a fifth molar, also permanent, appears (Plate
V.). Between the age of three and four the mouth is completed with
twelve permanent molars in each jaw, or twenty-four in all (Plate
V.). The incisors are six in number in each jaw when the mouth is
complete, at the age of four. Just back of these, on each side, at
the age of four appears a pointed tooth called a tusk (Plate VI.).
These tusks are rarely found in mares. The lower jaw of a horse
three years old is marked by two permanent teeth in the centre and
two milk teeth on either side. Milk teeth are easily distinguished
from permanent incisors by their smallness, whiteness, and their
more distinct necks. At the age of four the lower jaw has four
permanent and one milk tooth on either side. At the age of five
there are six permanent teeth and no milk teeth. At the age of six
there are six permanent teeth and the corner teeth are filled in
the centre. At the age of seven the dark filling in the pit of the
two centre teeth disappears (Plate VI.). At the age of eight (Plate
VI.) the dark filling disappears from the four centre teeth, and
at the age of nine these marks have generally disappeared from all
the teeth (Plate VI.). For all practical purposes this measure of
the age of the horse is accurate enough, though it is apparent that
the nature of the food on which the horse is fed, whether it be
hard or soft, makes a difference. Horses, for example, fed upon the
fresh food of a farm will retain the marks in the teeth longer than
horses grazing upon tough grass. As a rule, in examining a horse's
mouth only the lower jaw is looked at. It is well to lift the lips
above the upper incisors to see if they are unduly worn--a sure
sign of "cribbing."
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.--GOOD SHOULDERS, LEGS, AND FEET]
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.--HEAVY-HARNESS TYPES]
What has been written thus far as to the points of the horse may
puzzle the amateur owner, for the reason that these points seem to
apply to all horses of whatever description. In proper proportions
they do. It is only necessary to adapt these measurements and
proportions to the kind of a horse we want, remembering always
the well-known law, that muscles and bones of speed are long and
slender, and those of strength are short and thick. A pony 14 hands
2 inches, capable of carrying 200 odd pounds, and a three-quarters
bred polo pony of the same size, but wanted for speed and
quickness, would naturally enough not look alike, but the general
relation of the parts to one another would be the same; and in
looking at one for a weight-carrier and at the other for speed, you
should bear in your mind's eye the same distinct principles of what
constitutes a good horse and what a bad one.
If you are looking for a horse for your runabout, or for a horse
for a heavy station-wagon, one should be lighter, cleaner-built
perhaps, quicker, and livelier than the other; but it is a grave
mistake to suppose that the same remarks about head, neck, back,
legs, feet, and so on do not apply with equal pertinency to the one
as to the other. Remembering always that weight is of great help
in pulling a load,--a horse with a heavy man on his back can pull
a big load up a hill that without the weight on his back he could
scarcely move,--the other general definitions of what constitute
a good horse apply to all classes. A straight-shouldered horse
is less noticeable and less uncomfortable in harness than under
saddle; a slab-sided, ragged-hipped, goose-rumped animal well
covered with heavy harness in a brougham is less offensive than
under saddle, but such an one is a poor specimen wherever he is.
The ideal way, however, to cultivate an eye for a horse is to
study his make-up externally and internally from the plates of the
skeleton and the internal parts (Plates XVI. and XVII.); to bear
in mind what his ancestry is; to note the relation of the parts
to one another, and the position of his various organs; to study
carefully the dispositions, abilities, strength, and weaknesses
of the horses that you know well; and to come to your conclusions
with this knowledge and experience in the back of your brain. To be
able to gabble off the points of a horse _memoriter_ avails about
as much as to know the letters of the alphabet avails to write one
of Rossetti's sonnets. Even then you will make mistakes; but to
enjoy the sport of owning and using horses, either in harness or
under saddle, one cannot know too much, either theoretically or
practically.
Although this volume is included in a library on sport, it
should never be forgotten that in dealing with every branch of
sport, particularly where live animals are trained and used by
the sportsman, a very serious ethical element enters. No man who
knows nothing about horses, no matter how charitable he may be,
no matter how ecclesiastically regular he may be, no matter how
conspicuously tender-hearted he may be to children, insects, and
the poor, has any business on a horse or behind a horse. First,
because he is almost invariably cruel to the horse; and secondly,
because he is endangering the lives of other people. How often
I have seen Piety in the saddle, sawing the tender bars of the
horse's mouth, and sliding back and forth from pommel to cantle
of the saddle, excoriating the tender skin and flesh beneath.
How often I have seen Philanthropy and Worth driving horses with
cruel bearing-reins, traces too long, pole-straps too tight,
coupling-reins of the same length for the long-necked and the
short-necked horse, belly-band tight and girth loose, bit too
wide, nose-band flapping up and down, and breeching too tight or
too loose. Little did Philanthropy and Worth realize that these
things were as uncomfortable to the horse as tight shoes, trousers
too long, coats too small, collars too tight, and a toothache and
headache to them. It is because sport has been handled in this
country to such a large extent by the professional and by the
uncultivated, that its prime value as a teacher of practical and
economic morality has been overlooked.
Above all things, do not imagine that, because you own one or
more horses and stroke their necks occasionally, that you know a
horse when you see one. Such knowledge does not come by cutaneous
friction nor by money. A wise man has three attributes always; he
may have more, but he must have these: (1) he is never afraid to
ask questions; (2) he is thankful for the many things he does not
want; (3) he knows when he does not know things. Therefore, ask
questions and make no pretence. The most ill-informed man I ever
met is one who has never failed to answer every question asked him,
and who never asks one himself. It is needless to say that he is a
failure in his profession, a bore socially, and an encyclopædia of
voluble misinformation.