The head should be lean and small, without being too long: the ears at a moderate distance, small, straight (but not stiff) narrow, and well-placed on the top of the head; the forehead should be narrow, and a little convex; the hollows or spaces between the eyes and ears, well filled; the eyelids thin; the eyes clear, lively, full of fire, rather large, and projecting; the pupil rather large; the nether jaw thin; the nose a little arched; the nostrils large and open, and divided by a thin partition; the lips thin, the mouth of a moderate width; the withers raised and sloping, the shoulders flat, and not confined; the back equal, insensibly arched lengthways, and raised on each side of the back bone, which should appear indented; the flanks full and short; the rump round and fleshy; the haunches well covered with muscular flesh; the stump of the tail thick and firm; the thighs thick and fleshy; the houghs round before, and broad on the sides; the shank thin and small; the fetlock strong and covered with a tuft of hair behind; the pasterns large, and of a middling length; the coronet rather raised; the hoof black, smooth, and shining; the instep high; the quarters round; the heels wide and moderately raised; the frog small and thin, and the sole thick and hollow.
Few horses possess this assemblage of perfection; the eyes are subject to many faults, which are sometimes difficult to be known. In a sound eye, we ought to see through the cornea two or three spots of the colour of soot, above the pupil; for to see those spots, the cornea must be clear, clean, and transparent; if it appears double, or of a bad colour, the eye is not good; a small, long, and straight pupil, encompassed with a white circle, or when it is of a blueish green colour, the eye is certainly bad.
I shall at present only add some remarks, by which a judgment may be formed of the principal perfections and imperfections of a horse. It is very easy to judge of the natural and actual state of the animal by the motion of his ears; when he walks, he should incline forwards the points of his ears; when jaded his ears hang low; those which are spirited and mischievous, alternatively carry one of their ears forwards, and the other backwards: they all turn their ears to that side on which they hear any noise, and when struck on the back, or on the rump, they turn their ears backward. Horses who have the eyes deep sunk in the head, or one smaller than the other, have usually a bad sight; those whose mouths are dry, are not of so healthy a temperament as those which have their mouths moist, and make the bridle frothy. A saddle horse ought to have the shoulders flat, supple, and not very fleshy; the draft horse, on the contrary, should have them flat, round, and thick; if, notwithstanding, the shoulders of a saddle horse are too thin, and the bones shew themselves through the skin, it is a defect which proves the shoulders are not free, and consequently the horse cannot bear much fatigue. Another fault of a saddle horse is, to have the chest project too forward, and the fore legs placed too far backward, because he is apt in this case to rest on the hand in galloping, and even to stumble and fall. The length of the legs should be proportionable to the height of the horse; when the fore legs are too long he is not sure-footed, if they are too short, he bears too heavy on the hand. It is a remark that mares are more liable than horses to be low before, and that stone-horses in general have thicker necks than mares or geldings.
