The star on the forehead. No native will purchase a horse if he can cover the star on the forehead with the ball of his thumb. And in buying a horse from a native, look to that mark, as they take the white hairs out with a certain application. A large star is a good sign. No star at all is of no consequence; but a few white hairs proclaim a bad horse, and no native will buy him.
With respect to the colour of horses, they are fanciful. Greys are admired: black horses are also considered handsome: bays are good: chestnuts very bad.
With regard to Arabs, they are extremely particular as to the perfect straightness of the forehead, from the top of it down to the nose; the slightest rise on that part proving in their ideas a want of perfect pedigree. The deep hollow under the jaw is absolutely necessary; the small mouth, and the open, large, thin-skinned nostrils; the eyes large and fine; the hoof small, black, and hard; and the long tail. These points attract the particular attention of the natives. “Bay in all his eight joints[7].” Horses of that colour are esteemed hardy and active.
The prophet judged shicàl bad in a horse: shicàl is, when a horse has the right hind-foot and the left fore-foot, or the right fore-foot and the left hind-foot, white.
The amble of a native horse is a quiet, quick pace, but not agreeable at first to one accustomed to the paces of horses broken in by Europeans: the Mahratta bit is extremely sharp, and throws a horse well on his haunches.
I have seen a young horse, being taught to amble, with a rope tied to each fetlock; it made him take short steps, moving the two legs of the same side at the same time; it is a natural pace to a horse over-loaded.
Horses in India are usually fastened with two ropes to the head stall, and the two hind-legs have a rope fastened on each fetlock, which rope is secured to a stake behind the animal, long enough to allow of his lying down: these are called āgārī-pichhārī.
In Shakespear’s Dictionary, hirdāwal is mentioned as the name of a defect in horses, and its being a feather or curling lock of hair on the breast, which is reckoned unlucky for the rider.
It is written, speaking of the Prophet Mohammud, “There was nothing his Highness was so fond of, after women, as horses; and after horses as perfumes; and the marks of good horses are these: the best horses are black, with white foreheads, and having a white upper lip; next to that, a black horse, with white forehead and three white legs; next to this is a bay horse of these marks: a bay, with white forehead, white fore and hind legs, is best; and a sorrel with white fore and hind legs is also good. Prosperity is with sorrel horses. I heard the Prophet say, ‘Do not cut the hair of your horses’ foreheads, nor of their necks, nor of their tails; because verily horses keep the flies off with their tails, and their manes cover their necks, and blessings are interwoven with the hair of their foreheads,’ ‘Tie up your horses and make them fat for fighting, and wipe off the dust from their foreheads and rumps; and tie bells to their necks.’”
This latter command is curious, as in the “Rites of Travelling” it is mentioned, “The angels are not with that party with which is a dog, nor with that party with which is a bell.” “A bell is the devil’s musical instrument.” “Kill black dogs having two white spots upon their eyes; for verily this kind of dog is the devil.”