Horoscope
in astrology, an observation of the sky and the configuration of the planets at a certain moment as at the instant of a person's birth, from which the astrologer claimed to be able to foretell the future. Also a HORSE scheme or plan of the 12 houses or 12 signs of the zodiac, in which is marked the disposition of the heavens at a particular moment, and by which astrologers pretended to be able to foretell the fortunes of persons according to the position of the stars at their birth.
HORSE (Equus), an ungulate or hoofed mammal of the order Perissodactyla, characterized by having an odd number of toes; the family Equidæ formed the group Solidungula of old writers, owing to the presence of only a single hoof, which marks them off quite sharply from all allied animals.
The existing species of the genus Equus are about half a dozen in number. (1) The horse (E. caballus) is characterized by the tail being furnished with long hairs quite from its base; by the long and flowing mane; by the possession of a bare callosity on the inner surface of the hind as well as of the fore legs; and by the head and ears being smaller and the limbs longer than in HORSE ing smaller ears. (4) The quagga (E. quagga) has dark stripes upon the head and shoulders on a brown ground; it is said to be now extinct. (5) Burchell's zebra (E. Burchelli) is white, with stripes on the body and the upper parts of the limbs; it extends from the Orange river to Abyssinia. (6) The mountain zebra (E. zebra) is white, with long A A B B A. BELGIAN HORSE B. ARAB HORSE the other species. (2) The ass (E. asinus) is almost as widely distributed as the horse; it is probably of African origin. (3) The Asiatic ass (E. hemionus) differs from the common ass in being of a more reddish color, in the absence of the shoulder stripe, and in hav- A. HACKNEY B. CHAMPION CLYDESDALE "BARON'S PRIDE" black stripes reaching down to the feet.
It is limited to the Cape Colony and is rapidly disappearing. These last three are sometimes united into a special genus, Hippotigris. (7) The explorations of the Russian traveler Prejevalsky in 1881 added another species to the list of Asiatic forms, which has been called after him. The long hairs of the tail begin only half-way down it; the mane is short and erect, and there is no forelock; the head is large and heavy; the ears smaller than those of the ass. It inhabits the dry sultry regions of the Dzungarian desert, living in companies of 15 to 20, each led by a stallion. Only two herds were observed, and only one specimen was secured. The native country of the horse seems to have been Central Asia. It became early domesticated in Egypt. The Greeks and Romans had some covering to secure their horses' hoofs from injury. In the 9th century horses were only shod in time HORSE CHESTNUT of frost. Shoeing was introduced into England by William I., 1066.
It was believed that the original breed of horses is extinct, and that the halfwild herds existing in many places have descended from animals once in captivity. Thus when the horse was first introduced by the Spaniards in 1537 at Buenos Ayres, it is believed that there were no wild horses in America. But individuals escaping ran wild, and by 1580 their descendants had spread over the continent as far as the Straits of Magellan. Their favorite abode is on the Pampas, where they now exist in untold numbers. In Paraguay the larva of a fly kills them. In 1764 they were introduced into the Falkland Islands by the French with a similar result. But there was found in La Plata a now extinct species of horse, and more Equidx have Equidæ have been found in the New than in the Old World. The horse may have descended from a striped ancestor, stripes still sometimes remaining, especially in duns and mouse-duns. His present colors are brown, gray, or black, sometimes with roundish pale spots. His age is ascertained by examining first which teeth are developed, and then to what extent they have been worn away by use. They are best tamed by kindness. Like other domestic animals the horse has run into various breeds. The most celebrated is the Arab horse. The racehorse, the hunter, and the carriage horse all vary considerably in character.