STAR—is the white centrical spot in the forehead of a horse, directly between, and rather above, the eyes. These are considered great natural ornaments in _bays_, _chestnuts_, _browns_, and _blacks_; inducing DEALERS to remedy the deficiencies of nature by the obtrusion of art. This is effected by scraping off the hair carefully with a razor, from the part where the intended star is to appear, when, by wetting the surface with oil of vitriol, an eschar will soon appear, when which exfoliates, it is followed by a growth of hair of the colour required. STARING OF THE COAT.—This external appearance in a horse, so strikingly denotes him _out_ of _condition_, or _diseased_, that it never escapes the eye of the most superficial observer. It is originally occasioned by a sudden collapsion of the porous system, from an exposure to cold chilling rains, after having been previously heated; a change from a warm stable to one less comfortable, and a consequent viscidity of the blood; or from a low, impoverished, and acrimonious state of the circulation. See HIDEBOUND, SURFEIT, and MANGE. STARTING,—in horses, is an imperfection, if it becomes habitual, that is of the most dangerous description. It is exceedingly different from a horse _skittish_, _wanton_, and _playful_ only, for which the rider is always prepared; and if a good horseman, it is generally as pleasing to one as to the other. But when a horse is eternally in fear, and alarmed at every object unlike himself, he not only sometimes snorts and stops suddenly in the midst of a rapid career of either _trot_ or _gallop_, but, by an instantaneous spring of five or six feet, brings the rider over his head, or dismounts him on one side or the other. It is not at all matter of surprise, that most of the young horses brought from the country, should at first be alarmed at the infinite variety and velocity of carriages, as well as with other strange and unaccountable objects, to which they must have been entirely unaccustomed before they reached the environs of the Metropolis. Horses of this description, (good-tempered, and not viciously inclined,) are never known to be long so disposed, provided they are treated tenderly, and encouraged mildly to pass the object by which they have been so suddenly, accidentally, and perhaps unnecessarily, alarmed; but when the fools who ride them permit _passion_ and _inhumanity_ to predominate over reason, obstinacy on one side often begets opposition on the other, and accident or death frequently ensues; in confirmation of which, the following fact may be applicably introduced, as a check to the impetuosity of those _heroes_ on horseback, with which every road, and every country, so plentifully abound.