BUYING HORSES 31 



fortnight later my friend sprung ;^20 and then 

 left the horse. I then told a dealer about him 

 and all the circumstances connected with the 

 deal. The dealer bid ;f25o for his first and only 

 bid^ and he got him. 



It may be asked how dealers make a living 

 if they are better buyers than gentlemen, but 

 really such a question almost answers itself. The 

 horse when he comes out of the dealer's hands is a 

 very different animal to what he was when he 

 went into it and many hunters would be of very 

 little use to some men if they went straight from 

 the breeder. '' You would call X a fine horse- 

 man wouldn't you ? " asked the late Harry 

 Custance one day, and on my replying in the 

 affirmative he replied '' Yet all the horses that 

 come from him want breaking over again before 

 they are fit to put into the hands of an ordinary 

 customer." The gentleman in question had good 

 seat and hands and an iron nerve yet somehow 

 his horses seldom went kindly with a stranger 

 until they had gone through a course of schooling. 



And then it must be remembered again that 

 when gentlemen purchase of a dealer they are 

 relying on the judgment of that dealer, and that 

 the dealer's profit really represents the value of 

 his judgment. There is also the fact that most 

 dealers will change the horse if he does not suit, 

 which is a very great consideration. 



The Horse Repositories are conducted on 

 very different lines to what they were when 

 *' Caveat Emptor " wrote, some eighty years 



