2 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



being known, would enable one to buy with intelligence 

 and wisdom ? How can one who has had little if any 

 experience with horses go to the mart or field, and in- 

 vest his money in such a way as to escape the ridicule 

 of his more experienced companions and neighbors, and 

 the censure of his after-judgment ? I reply, that such a 

 standard can be formed, — a standard which, when it 

 has become known and familiar to the mind, enables it 

 to discriminate with accuracy touching the excellences 

 or deficiencies of every animal inspected, and qualifies a 

 man to fix surely and at once the money-value of the 

 animal he wishes to purchase. In other vfords, there 

 are certain elements of nature, and certain peculiarities 

 of form, and a certain style of action, which the perfect, 

 the ideal horse invariably possesses, and which, accord- 

 ing to the degree with which they are possessed by an 

 animal, rank it in the column of value and price. Nor 

 are these marks, on the one hand, so numerous as to be 

 beyond the capacity of the poorest memory to commit 

 them ; nor, on the other, are they so latent, that, when 

 once pointed out, they cannot be perceived by even the 

 most casual glance. Nature does not disguise herself 

 from those that seek to know her, nor so mask her excel- 

 lences that they cannot be perceived and admired even 

 by the careless eye. I propose, therefore, to point out 

 to the reader those marks which characterize the perfect 

 or ideal horse ; and I do so for the sole purpose that 

 every boy who reads these pages may have with him the 

 knowledge wliich forbids blundering and financial loss 



