ii8 THE HORSE AND THE WAR 



Army. For one thing the pace is funereal, which is suggested by the slow 

 march and the drooping heads. You may not hurry the lame, the halt, and 

 the blind, to which may be added the broken- winded ; and so the pace of this 

 little procession with its suggestion of real pathos is that of its slowest unit. 

 The most unsophisticated onlooker notices that they are not the strong and 

 healthy, bright-eyed animals that usually leave the Depot for the train en route 

 for overseas. He notices the knife-board back, the staring ribs and the sunken 

 eyes of the chronic debility case ; the shuffling amble of the incurably lame ; 

 and the swollen " greasy " legs of the heavy draught horse. The presence of 

 one or two others he may not so well understand, for stone-blindness is not 

 at once apparent to the passer-by, the broken-winded riding-horse has no 

 outward signs at the moment to indicate his troubles, and the one condemned 

 for vice is apparently at the high-water mark of robust health. Naturally 

 the man in khaki has not elected to ride the confirmed kicker, bucker, and biter. 



" 'Ere comes a circus," shrieks a delighted small bo}-, whose mother hastily 

 gathers him up from the middle of the road and explains that it is the Army 

 going out on manoeuvres. One also seems to have overheard the muttered 

 criticism of the elderly lady who frowns on this seemingly shocking evidence 

 of Army neglect and cruelty towards their " poor dear horses." And the 

 girl who now drives the baker's cart cannot resist an inquiry of the Corporal 

 with the party as to why he had brought out his horses without their wheels. 

 At the place where they are sold their preliminary inspection is carried out bv 

 prospective buyers with as much care as a connoisseur of art and antiques will 

 display in quite another kind of mart. Such inspectors too ! Soft-hatted, 

 bowler-hatted specialists in cheap horseflesh, who know exactly where the 

 dividing line is that separates the " fair " and the " bargain " prices. Their 

 hope is that the Remount people may have made a "blob " in casting one or 

 more that were " not 'arf bad " and might profitably be patched up by more 

 skilful hands than are to be found in the Army ! So the " casters " must 

 endure an ordeal of intimate inspection — all except the vice cases, which the 

 velvet-waistcoated experts discover for themselves without the telling. For 

 it should be understood that these cast Army horses are sold without any sort 

 of guarantee. Of what virtue could they guarantee them ? I confess I 

 am unable to name one. Their total innocence in this respect is of course the 

 raison d'etre of their visit to the auctioneer's. 



If you want to see the real expert at work watch one of these prospective 

 buyers. He may be a horse-dealer with forty crowded years of experience 

 behind him in the humble line of business, a dealer in " antiques," " has beens," 

 and " crocks." He may be a rural butcher with a taste and capacity for occa- 

 sional horse " coping" ; or he maybe the inevitable bargain-hunter who is at 

 every sale and horse fair. They were certainly not born yesterday, as it were, 

 and they get up very early in the morning and remain fairly wideawake when 

 any business is doing. He knows where to look for the cause of casting. 

 H he cannot find tendon troubles about the heavily-fired legs, serious bony 

 enlargements, or spavins, he knows how to test the patient for his eyesight, 

 and if he is still mystified he watches his opportunity to use his stick to see if 

 the animal grunts to the flourish of it and so reveals his wind infirmity. Some- 



