54 PURCHASING FROM THE STABLES. 



wiry ; a bull-neck will fine away ; a herring-gut 

 will turn into a beautiful barrel ; a heavy shoul- 

 der into a light one ; and a contracted and long 

 foot will both open and shorten, when he is pro- 

 perly shod ; in short, a brute will in a month be 

 perfection, if you will only hand over your rupees. 

 All this spluttering balderdash proves, either that 

 they know nothing at all about a horse, or else 

 that they are trying to deceive you : the former 

 is the most charitable supposition, and, no doubt, 

 the correct one, though a very large share of the 

 latter is ahvays mixed up with it. When, there- 

 fore, you hear arguments so truly nonsensical, and 

 thinly- veiled as these, the sooner you unfold your 

 knowledge of human nature, if you have none of 

 a horse's, the richer you will find yourself in 

 pocket. 



Another deceptive mode of talking, shallow 

 enough certainly, but peculiar to the Bomb Proof, 

 is in this way : — When the stride is found short- 

 ened and clumsy, from having been overweighted 

 by riding or carrying heavy burdens — a very com- 

 mon occurrence — the answ^er is, " Oh, that was 

 done in Arabia ;" or, " he was always so." Well, 

 if overweighted in Arabia when he was young, 

 and the action injured in consequence, the chances 

 are a hundred to one against his ever recovering 

 it, unless a very powerful horse,, and always after 



