Horsefaq.org
A Handbook for Horse Owners
everything required. So that, if the price is attractive, here is one point which may be overlooked, provided the horse is well put together in other respects. If you want to buy a 'chaser or a point-to-point horse don't buy one with very long legs; they may go fast on the flat for a bit, but they fall much more easily. The best for this purpose are the shorter, stockier kind who make up in strength and staying power for what they lack in inches. Your tall, slashing, thoroughbred is often a clumsy horse when it conies to jumping over fences. He is much more easily knocked down, and when blown a bit is more likely to fall. We want to buy strength, not length. The strong horse without quality can be bought cheap. The quality horse without substance can be picked up cheaper still, and is dear at any price for racing. Aim at strength and soundness first, and add as much quality as your purse can buy.
| Bridling | A horse that plays with his bit. |
| Cock-throttled | A horse with a neck like a fowl. |
| Cold back | A horse that kicks, etc., when you mount him |
| Cow-hocked | Hocks close together. |
| Dishing | A horse that splays his feet when trotting. |
| Ewe-necked | Neck set back. |
| Feather | The hair on a cart-horse's legs. |
| Fiddle-headed | An ugly-headed horse. |
| Flat-sided | The opposite of'well ribbed up' |
| Full neck | A thick neck |
| Good doer | A horse with a good appetite |
| Good frontispiece Good rein | Good sloping shoulders |
| Goose-rumped | Not muscled up on the quarters |
| Grunts under the stick | An expression denoting wind trouble |
| Gummy legs | Legs that are filled |
| Hairy heeled | An underbred horse |
| Herring-gutted | Thin in the loin |
| High Blower | A horse that makes a lot of noise through it's nostrils |
| Hide bound | A horse's coat should be loose: when it is tight it is called 'hide bound' |
| Haw | The third eyelid |
| Lop ears | Ears like a rabbit |
| lots in front of him | Good sloping shoulders |
| Nappy | A horse that 'sticks his toes in' or will not go on |
| Near side | Left side |
| Nutcracker | A horse that grinds it's teeth |
| Off side | Right side |
| On the leg | legs too long |
| Parrot Jawed | Teeth that meet at an angle, like a parrot |
| Peacocky | A horse with head and tail up |
| Pig eye | A sunken eye |
| Point-to-point | A local hunt steeplechase |
| Refuser | A horse that turns away from a jump |
| Roach-backed | Showing the backbone |
| Roarer | A horse with wind trouble |
| Roman nosed | A face convex towards the nostrils |
| Short of a rib | A horse with a hollow loin |
| Short of bone | Bad measurement below the knee |
| Sickle-hocked | Hocks not well 'let down' |