BUYING HORSES 33 



wants there can be no better plan and I know 

 of several farmers who make their horses 

 thoroughly well. Few, however, unless they 

 combine the business of dealing in hunters with 

 farming, keep their horses till they are matured, 

 and a gentleman generally wants a horse ready 

 to go to work. So that the subject of buying 

 horses from farmers is one which does not lend 

 itself to generalisation, but I shall have some- 

 thing more to say on the subject later. 



The wisest plan for the ordinary man to adopt 

 is to go to the dealer, tell him exactly what he 

 wants and how much money he is prepared to 

 give. I am sure that he will save money in the 

 long run by adopting this plan, for he will sooner 

 get suited. If the first horse he gets does not 

 suit him the dealer is not averse to changing 

 and having seen him in the saddle the dealer 

 soon finds out the kind of horse his customer 

 wants. 



If a man is a fine horseman and has plenty of 

 time there is no more interesting way of spending 

 it than in ' making ' his own horses. Let him 

 then buy the likeliest four-year-olds he can find 

 amongst his farmer friends and put in his spare 

 time in riding them into his 'liking.' I can 

 speak from experience that no horse ever carries 

 a man so well as the one he has made himself. 

 There are some gentlemen who ' ride their horses 

 into money' or who try to do so, which is not 

 always the same thing. I have known many of 

 them, some of them very successful. For a man 

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