POINT.—A horse standing in his stall, or elsewhere, with one fore-leg at some distance before the other, is always concluded, by the most experienced, to have sustained some irreparable injury either in the SHOULDER, or the ligamentary junction of the COFFIN and CORONARY bones, concealed in the box (or cavity) of the hoof. This is in a considerable degree to be relied on; but there are many instances in which a horse accustoms himself to awkward positions, and they become habitual: some stand with either the _near_ or the _off_ fore-leg eternally before the other, and are as perfectly sound as any horses in the kingdom. To say, therefore, from a horse's manner of standing, that he is lame, would be as absurd as to say any man could not be either a good dancer, or fencer, because he stood, when disengaged from both, in a careless, lounging, ungraceful attitude.
POINT—is the position of a POINTER, when standing seemingly fixed and immoveable at the game before him; at the moment of observing which, particularly with young or unsteady dogs, the natural ejaculatory caution of "TO HO!" "HAVE A CARE!" transpires; not more as an injunction of _steadiness_ to the dog standing, but as a communicative mode of enjoining the attention of every dog in the field to the first who has obtained the point.
POINTER.—The pointer is that species of dog well known to contribute more to the contemplative pleasures and pursuits of a sportsman, than any other in the canine catalogue. This peculiar breed, on account of their universality and general utility, have been so incredibly crossed, re-crossed, bred _in_, and bred _out_, to gratify the various opinions, (as prompted by fancy, caprice, or speculation,) that they are now to be found of all sizes, and all qualifications; from the slow, short-headed, heavy-shouldered remains of the original Spanish pointer, (who will tire in half a day's work,) to the cross of _in_ and _in_ with a FOX HOUND, of which none are ever known to tire; many of them having speed enough to catch a leveret three parts grown, when they jump up before them. Pointers, forty or fifty years since, were hardly ever seen but entirely white, or variegated with liver-coloured spots; except the then DUKE of KINGSTON'S black and white, which were considered superior to every breed in the kingdom, and sold for most extravagant sums after his death. They are now, from the constantly increasing attachment to field sports, to be seen of every description, from pure white, and a flea-bitten blue or grey, to a universal liver-colour, and a perfect black. In a choice of pointers for general use, that is for _every_ species of GAME, the extremes in _size_, as well as in _speed_, are better avoided, and the line of mediocrity adhered to: overgrown, heavy dogs, soon get weary in the hot and early part of the season: the smaller sort have also their inconveniencies in hunting in very high turnips, heath, broom-fields, &c.