120 THE HOESE BOOK. 



auctioneer. There are quite constant modifica- 

 tions of these conditions by the pointing out of 

 imperfections. 



The most astounding practice about the horse 

 business in a professional way is the "bush." 

 If a definition of this term should be inserted in 

 Webster's Unabridged Dictionary it would 

 probably read about like this: "To bush. To 

 force or cajole the seller of a horse to refund to 

 the purchaser a portion of the price bid in the 

 auction ring." There are various reasons for 

 this "bushing." A buyer may find something 

 on the horse which he did not see in the ring. 

 Then he may insist on a reduction of the price 

 and the vendor will consent to be "bushed" 

 rather than run the risk of a rejection. Some- 

 times the seller will submit to the process on 

 the statement of the buyer that he has bought 

 the horse too dear. "Bushing" is necessarily 

 a sort of a private transaction and it would 

 therefore be useless to go into further detail. 

 Many a horse has, however, gone through the 

 ring with the "bush" arranged beforehand, 

 which is another way of saying that the horse 

 was bought before he was auctioned off. 



In the vernacular of the bull-pen there are 

 many terms and expressions which may be ex- 

 plained. The most incomprehensible I ever 

 heard was "bush and a gristle," which indi- 

 cated that the horse had an incipient sidebone 

 and was sold subject to a reduction of the price 



