FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



age three and upward are too expensive, or 

 too unsound, to be desirable ; too light- framed, 

 or too crazy, etc., there are, on the western 

 tracks, not a few horses running in cheap selling 

 races that are well worth purchase, and can be 

 bought at suitable figures. There are also in the 

 sales occurring annually at Lexington, Kentucky, 

 in December, a lot of barren brood mares, stallions, 

 and various racing misfits and failures, often very 

 thin and out of condition, but selling for the 

 merest trifle, that are well worth looking over. 

 They run in price from $5 to $100, and the 

 writer has seen many rare bargains, for hunting 

 or hacking, going for a trifle. The objection 

 that dealers and others have hitherto had to the 

 thoroughbred is that there has existed among 

 buyers an unfounded prejudice against him, and 

 one found great difficulty in disposing of him 

 even " in the raw." If orders were placed with 

 any purveyor to secure a certain number at a fixed 

 price per head, they to be of certain height, etc., 

 quantities could be cheaply secured. If the de- 

 mand exists it can be economically supplied. 



Once bought, it remains to teach the young 

 idea how to competently perform his task, and 

 many and various are the methods in use. One 



164 



