PREFACE VII 



has reached five years without work, reject him. 

 not trouble yourself to find out what it is, there 

 is certainly something wrong about the brute." My 

 experience bears out this counsel. In quadrupeds and 

 men destined to labour, there must be some inherent 

 deficiency in them if they go long without work. 



It should be borne in mind that, even where " price 

 is no object/' the purchaser cannot insure the posses- 

 sion of a perfect animal according to any abstract 

 standard. There are very few really bad horses, and, 

 providing horses are properly " placed/' that is, put 

 to their right use the use for which nature fits them 

 all difficulties in dealing in horse-flesh will vanish. 

 There is not a grain of sense or truth in the assertion 

 that the horses of to-day are far inferior to the " well- 

 bred horse of old/' Again, exceptions do not always 

 prove the rule, and the reference to one or more old 

 beauties amongst a lot of young and not beautiful 

 animals goes for nothing ; or proves no more than that 

 the favourites of old days were not over-worked. Horses 

 not over- worked improve in beauty from eight to six- 

 teen years. During that period the cartilage becomes 

 absorbed, the head smaller and sharper in outline ; the 

 prominent bones and tissues again present a youthful 

 roundness, the legs become fine, and the tendons acquire 

 a sharp, well-defined appearance ; the horse himself 

 might be taken by a good judge to be much younger 

 than in reality he is, did not his mouth bear evidence to 

 the contrary. The cognoscenti, however, rarely need 

 the evidence of the mouth, the general shape and 

 contour of the horse being in most cases sufficient. 



It may be some consolation for those whose know- 





