The parfait mareschal, or Compleat farrier. Which teacheth, I. To know the shapes and goodness, as well as faults and imperfections of horses. II. The signs and causes of their diseases, the means to prevent them, their cure, and the good or bad use of purging and bleeding. III. The way to order and preserve them, when upon travel, to feed, and to dress them. IV. The art of shoeing, according to a new design of shoes, which will recover bad feet, and preserve the good. Together with a treatise, how to raise and bring up a true and beautiful race of horses: as also instructions, whereby to fit all kinds of horses with proper bits, whereof the chief draughts are represented in copper-plates. / Written originally in French by the Sieur de Solleysel Escuyer, sometime one of the overseers of the French Kings Royal Academy of Riding, near to the Hostel de Conde in Paris. And translated from the last Paris impression, by Sir William Hope of Kirkliston Kt. Lieutenat Governour of the Castle of Edinburgh. By whom is also added as a supplement to the first part, a most compendious and excellent collection of horsemanship, taken from the best and most modern writers upon that subject, such as Mr. De la Brow, Pluvinel, and the Great Duke of Newcastle. Part I.

CHAP. XVIII. How to know if a Horses Mouth be good and Loyal.

A Horse to have a good Mouth,* 1.1 should have a well raised Neck, and if it be somewhat large and thick, it should be at least well turned, his reins strong and well shapt, and his legs and feet likewise; if he have all these right, no doubt but he will have (unless it be by accident) a very good Mouth; Look to, or rather feel between the upper parts of the jaw-bones, to know if they are sufficiently well seperate, that so the Horse may with the more ease bring in and place his head ex∣actly, for if these two bones be too closs upon other, and that he have also a short and thick Neck charged with flesh, so that he cannot place his Head right, his having a good mouth well be to little purpose, because you cannot make use of it; and also this goodness of the Mouth is only agreeable, when the Head is brought in to its best situation and posture; for we do not imitate the Cravates, who make their horse carry their Noses in the Air, by which they are very subject to falling; and also when any of them are in thir countryes, the Clods or Stones in the high-wayes make them frequently trip and stumble.

You have in the second Chapter of this First part, particular observations where∣by to know when a Horses Mouth is good, to which I referr you that I may avoid repetitions: put your finger into the horse's Mouth, pressing his barr pretty hard with it, and if you find that it paineth him, it is a token that the barr is sensible, and consequently that his Mouth is good, but upon the contrary, if the barr be not sensible his Mouth will be nought, for a horses Mouth is no otherwise good, but it so far as it is less or more sensible; however too great a degree of it will render it bad, as I shall shew you.

Move your Finger also along his barrs, to feel if they be high and ridged, and not broke or hurt, which you will know either by the wound that is in them, or at least the Cicatrice, and which kind of Barrs are almost as much to be apprehended as a bad mouth, for although the wound may come to heal up, yet the cicatrice or scarr where the wound was, will never have that sense of feeling which the Barr would have were it free of it, and it is also probable, that that scar in the Barr may proceed from some cause which may denote the badness of the Mouth, or it may be occasioned by the Riders having too rude a bridle hand, or by a bad Bit; the greatest trouble which arises from such large wounds in the Barrs, is that they penetrate to very bone, and corrupting it, cause small splinters of bone to fall from it, where the Barr remaineth always after void and hollow, and which although it may be covered with the Cicatrice or healing up of the wound, yet will neither be so sensible as it was before, neither will the Mouth of the Bit rest so equally upon it.

Likewise if the place where the Curb resteth be hurt, you may infer by it, that the horse hath either a bad mouth, rests too much upon the Bit in travelling, or that the Rider hath a hard hand, or otherwise that the Curb is ill made, such as those are which are either too small in their Esses, or too square and not very round; or lastly, that the place where the Curb resteth is very tender; but in buying a horse a man should always conclude the worst against him, and believe that the place where the Curb resteth hath been hurt, either by his having too hard a pressure upon the Curb, or by his mouths not being so sensible as it ought.

In fine, to know with an intire certainty if a horses mouth be good, you must les him part, or put him on pretty smartly, and then presently stop him; by his parting you will know if he be not ticklish mouth'd, that is, if he doe not chack the bridle or

throw up his head, for when a horse hath a too sensible or ticklish mouth, he will rarely fail to beat upon the hand, or throw up his head, especially at his first parting or breaking off; again by his stop you will find if he stoppeth easily, and by the least mo∣tion of your hand, with his head firm and well placed.

You must make him thus part and stop very quickly two or three times, and if he perform it exactly, it will be a token not only of a good mouth, but also of much strength and Vigour; For if his parting be quick, and his stops just, with a firm and steddy head it is an extraordinary good sign, not only as to his mouth, but also as to his Reins: Because after a violent action such as that of running, in which a horse fully ex∣tends his body, if he stop as quickly and short as a man would have him, it is a certain token of a good mouth, which by its sensibility obliges the horse to Assemble in an instant all his forces and strength, that were extended and stretched in his course, to put himself upon his hinder parts or haunches; and if he repart again readily, and stop short, a man may conclude from that, after he hath made him perform it twice or thrice, that the horse hath a great dale of vigour, a good mouth, and excellent Reins: 'Tis indeed true, that if he be rid by a good horseman, and that the Horse himself be al∣so managed, or hath been but taught to form good and just stops according to his ca∣pacity, that in that case his rider may so order it, that he may with more ease perform what I have been saying; but if he part, and stop firm and short twice or thrice, under an ordinary horseman, I think that a man may very justly say that such a horse hath both mettle, strength, and a good mouth, because he parted quickly, formed very short and bard stops, by an easie and gentle motion of the hand, without any kind of violence whatsoever.

Now you are to observe if you please, that the shortest stops are not the best, but upon the contrary the very worst and most dangerous, so tha•• if you do not make use of them both very moderatly and seldom, you will soon ruine your Horses hams, and disorder his mouth; there needs no more to spoil a horse but one bad and irregular stop, which may give him such a strain, as shall make him of less value for it all his life time; but when People buy a horse they doe with him as they do with Fire Arms, to which they give a greater charge for the first or proof shot, than they will ever give them thereafter, and so men make use of this method of stopping horses short, for a tryal, which is both of very bad consequence, and false when made use of upon any other occasion: Besides what I have already said of the mouth, it should be also full of froath, which will be if the horse have what we call the action of the mouth, that is, if he champ continually upon the mouth of his bit, and play as it were with it, which is a token of a good horse, for few bad ones have this action; a man needs not be very knowing in horses, to under∣stand if the mouth be good, he is only to observe, if the horse stop readily and easily after a quick and swift carrier, but let this be only understood of such horses as are designed for ordinary journey riding.

Horses which have not a fresh and foaming mouth, may readily not have a good in∣ward constitution of body, but have a hot and dry Liver, which consumes that humi∣dity, which by the agitation of the tongue is converted into froath.

You may also observe if this froath be thin and fluid, or of a pale, gray, or yellowish colour, all which denote a bad tempered Brain, but if it be white and thick, and cleave to his lips and branches of the bridle, then you are to look upon the mouth to be Fresh, and that the horse is of a good constitution and sound in his body: This last ob∣servation of a froathing mouth, and its different colours, will not please all people, and if they doe not look upon it as a bad remark, they will at least think it an unnecessary one, but as I have undertaken to omit nothing which relates to horses, so I intreat the Reader to receive the advices I give him, with the same sincerity of mind wherewith I offer them.

You may in the last place take notice, if the bit which the horse hath in his mouth be not so rude, as by its violent effects to oblige and force him, to form his stops thus quick and short, which is however not very easily concealed; for with such a rude and harsh Bit a horse will alwayes make grimaces, beat on the hand, open his mouth, or endea∣vour to force the hand of the rider; and if he do them not, he will have his mouth bloody, hurt, or very much galled, which will be an infallible token of either a bad mouth, too rude a Bit, or a very unskilful horseman, and perhaps of all three.

Notes

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  CHAP. XVIII How to know if a Horses Mouth be good and Loyal.