THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 323 



" Such is the state of breeding- horses in England, 

 where they pretend tliat they have no occasion to re- 

 turn to Arabian horses — an opinion which appears to be 

 founded rather on the estimation in which the Enghsh 

 hold their own breed, or the fictitious value which they 

 wish to put upon them, than upon fact. 



" The race-horse is in England a grand object 

 of luxury and expense. Many rich families have been 

 ruined by the enormous wagers which take place at 

 their races, as well as the expense of keeping the 

 horses. It will hardly be believed that they have 

 carried their system to such an excess as to cover 

 whole fields with sand, in order to produce a more 

 delicate herbage, and more assimilated to that which 

 grows in Arabia, from whence the blood of these race- 

 horses originated, from the apprehension that the 

 coarser sort of grass would affect their wind ; and that 

 ^WQ or six grooms, at six guineas per month each, are 

 employed to take care of one horse, and that they w^arm 

 the water for the horse to drink in winter, with other 

 ridiculous customs unknown even to the Arabs." 



ON UNSOUNDNESS, AND THE PURCHASE 

 AND SALE OF HORSES. 



There are few sources of greater annoyance, both to 

 the buyer and the seller of the horse, than disputes 

 wdth regard to the soundness of the animal. Although 

 in describing the various parts of the horse, we have 

 glanced at the connexion of certain natural conforma- 

 tions, and some alterations of structure and accidents, 

 and diseases, with the question of soundness and un- 



