The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: [19] Or, "to display violence or run away."
It is important also to observe whether the jaws are soft or hard on
one or other side, since as a rule a horse with unequal jaws[20] is
liable to become hard-mouthed on one side.
[20] Or, "whose bars are not equally sensitive."
Again, a prominent rather than a sunken eye is suggestive of
alertness, and a horse of this type will have a wider range of vision.
And so of the nostrils: a wide-dilated nostril is at once better than
a contracted one for respiration, and gives the animal a fiercer
aspect. Note how, for instance, when one stallion is enraged against
another, or when his spirit chafes in being ridden,[21] the nostrils
On Horsemanship |