Buying a Hunter 79 



goes about a horse if he is a good judge," — he buys the 

 horse without further question. And how he squeals when 

 he finds he has paid five hundred dollars for a hundred- 

 dollar screw. He is deceived again, and the dealer gets 

 the credit for it. 



I repeat, I have always noticed that when a man has the 

 courage to tell a dealer he knows nothing about horses, 

 and depends entirely upon what the dealer says, he seldom 

 has much fault to find with what he buys. I remember 

 once when a dealer lost the sale of a horse because a little- 

 knowledge man said he was too straight in the shoulders. 

 The same man bought the same horse a week after from 

 the same dealer, who had done nothing in the meantime 

 but dock the horse's tail and pull his mane ! 



Speaking of docking reminds me of a laughable horse 

 trade that took place near Passaic, New Jersey. A dealer 

 by the name of Mahoney came to town with a car-load of 

 horses, of which he sold one to a sewing-machine agent. 

 When the dealer arrived in Passaic with his next consign- 

 ment, the sewing-machine man came back to him declar- 

 ing that the horse was unsatisfactory, and received about 

 half of the money he had originally paid for him. A few 

 days later his partner bought a horse of the dealer. It was 

 the same horse, only docked. If a dealer is sharp, it is the 

 customer that makes him so. 



I have had all things happen to my horses that horse- 

 flesh is heir to, but I have never felt that I was cheated 

 purposely by the seller, except once. The idea that dealers 

 go about the country buying unsound, worthless horses, to 

 cobble them up, dope the crazy ones, and whisky the lazy 



