324 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



— and you will find that the horses that stand at the top of the 

 market are all classified horses. The low selling horse is the un- 

 classified one. It seems to me that that is reason enough why you 

 should get horses that will classify, and not put on the market 

 horses that will sell at a marked down price. 



In addition to getting classified horses, there are certain other 

 things I want to talk to you about for a few minutes. First, the 

 greatest test to consider in this breeding to type which I have re- 

 ferred to is trueness to that type. Then comes the question of fat- 

 ness. Maybe you would not buy a fat horse; I would rather not, 

 but if you get a market horse, and expect some one else to buy 

 him, you will find that nine n>'en out of ten want a fat horse, and 

 you are standing in your own light if you put on the market a horse 

 so thin that he will sell so far below what he is really worth that 

 some one else can afford to buy him at a low price, and ship him to 

 Ohio, feed him from three to six months and ship him back to 

 market, and make a profit on him. You can easily make corn pay 

 you a dollar a bushel if you fed up a horse. Snyder in Ohio paid 

 $300 for a thin gelding in Chicago last fall; he evidently thought 

 he had a topper in that horse. He took him to Millersburg, Ohio, 

 and fed him, and sent him back to market with the expectation of 

 making a profit on him. 



The next thing is manner. A horse only half broke never sells 

 for what he is really worth. He may run over the ring all right, 

 and may get through the two days successfully, but the chances are 

 that he will not, and first impressions always count. I know a 

 dealer in Ohio who has his stables back behind another barn, and 

 you never ^o^X into the stables. When a buyer comes there, the 

 horse is led gently round the barn, and he sees him at his best. 

 His theory is that if the buyer sees the horse snorty and keyed up, 

 he will not want him. First impressions always count. Get a 

 judge to look at your horse by himself, when he has no chance to 

 compare him favorably or unfavorably with other horses and you 

 will make an impression that he will never forget. It is the same 

 way with selling. If you can make the first impression a good one, 

 you may rest assured that it will last, and if the horse is anything 

 like what he wants, you have made the sale. 



Then there are a number of minor things that help to determine 

 the sale. Age is one of them. A horse sells at his best from five 

 to eight years old. Draught horses will measure about a year 

 older than they really are, and it may easily be that a three-year-old 

 when he comes to market will more readily make a sale than a five 

 year old. Four is a bad age to sell. On the other hand, when a 

 horse passes eight, he does not sell to good advantage. 



Another thing is color. Certain colors are more favored than 

 others. In draught horses gray is the color most in favor. I have 

 had buyers tell me that they will pay from |20 to |25 more for a 

 draught horse in gray than any other color. In fact, you could not 

 hire some of them to take an other color. In Percherons, gray and 

 black are the predominating colors. Even if they have a black 

 stallion they want the geldings gray, and it has been claimed that 

 a black horse will get more gray ones out of a colored mare than a 



