There are many ladies who can at a glance tell real point lace from artificial, be the imitation never so good; but there are comparatively few who know the points of a horse, or can detect any but the most glaring defects or blemishes. The reason is simply want of practice, for the difference between the well-made and the ill-made horse, or between the sound animal and the spavined or foundered one, is far greater than that between the two pieces of lace above mentioned, which to most masculine eyes would appear exactly alike. With her superior delicacy of observation and quickness of perception, a woman ought to be, other things supposed equal, a better judge of horses than a man, and there must surely be a great many who, if they really believed this, would think it worth their while to master the small vocabulary of technical terms in which the information they require is always couched, and such would speedily find their reward in the opening of a new and interesting field of research. To begin with, how few ladies so much as know the names of the different parts of the animal! Head, legs, and body, eyes, ears, and tail, are about all the words in the feminine dictionary of horse lore, and whether the pasterns are not a disease of colts, the coronet a part of a bridle, and the frog a swelling in the throat, my lady knoweth not. A half-hour, however, given to the illustration on the following page, will remove once for all this preliminary difficulty, and will open the way to a consideration of the proper form and motion of the parts of which the names are here given:
PARTS AND "POINTS" OF THE HORSE, ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED.
_Arm, or True Arm_ (8, 8).--Extends from the point of the shoulder (29) to the elbow (10). It should be long.
_Back._--This is one of the four parts which, according to Arab saying, should be short.
_Back Sinew._--The powerful muscle back of the cannon-bone. It should be free from contact with the bone.
_Barrel, or Chest._--Should be roomy, as not only the lungs, but all the organs of digestion, are contained in it.
_Belly._--This is one of the four parts which the Arab proverb says must be long.
_Breast, or Bosom._--Should be deep, but not too broad, or speed will be diminished.