58 TRICKS OF DEALERS. 



buyer^ and at the same time serve as a loophole, in 

 the event of expert evidence being brought to bear 

 upon such, for the sale of an animal at an age other- 

 wise than that specified. To sell a horse of three 

 years as one of four saves the dealer a year's keep, 

 but anyone purchasing a horse for immediate work, 

 in town, should certainly not buy an animal under 

 five years of age. In order to bring the permanent 

 teeth quickly in the mouth, a malpractice, that is 

 sometimes indulged in, is that of extracting the 

 temporary incisors. This allows the permanent ones 

 to come into their place quicker. A trick sometimes 

 practised by the unprincipled horse-broker is 

 that of making the animal lame upon the corre- 

 sponding sound limb. For instance, let us suppose 

 that the horse is lame upon the off fore leg, and the 

 dealer (?) wishes to dispose of it. By inserting a 

 stone, say, beneath the shoe of the opposite limb 

 the animal will probably bruise the sole, and thus 

 cause it to go lame, so that the lameness is now 

 balanced in front, the animal dropping equally 

 upon both limbs. A horse may have a bone spavin 

 and be very lame through it, and in order to divert 

 the attention of the intending purchaser the dealer 

 may possibly make a wound upon some other part 

 of the limb and ascribe the lameness to this cause. 



