The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

SKITTISH

.—A horse is said to be SKITTISH, who is considerably above himself both in spirit and condition; displaying much more of pleasure in exercise, and the enjoyment of air and conditional freedom, (from the narrow confines of a stable,) than the least tendency to habitual vice. A skittish horse will jump two or three feet at the flight of a sparrow, or dance a saraband upon the rumbling approach of a carriage: he is (unless weary with work) always alive with gaiety and motion, without the least intentional injury to those who ride or drive him. There are those who confound the terms, and consider a SKITTISH and a STARTING horse one and the same thing; but they are in the eye of accuracy by no means synonymous.