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CHAPTER IX. 



ON THE PURCHASE OF HORSES. 



Puichase from a Horse-dealer — From a Farmer — At a Fair — By Advertisements — Comparative Advantages — Anecdote of the Duke 

 of Norfolk — Precautions required at Auctions — Tattersall's Rules — Copers and their Tricks — The Effect of Harness-work on 

 Riding Horses — Stallions, Geldings, or Mares — To choose a Horse know what you Want — Useful Soundness and Warrantable 

 Soundness — Judges of Form — Anecdote of Squire Foljambe — Points of Soundness Important — Eyesight — Wind — Whistling 

 and Roaring — Degrees of Lameness — Vice and its Degrees — The Law of Warranty — Colours — Light Grey and Piebald 

 objectionable in Hacks — Action — Its Varieties — Safe and Slow — Fast and Safe — Brilliant and Slow — Brilliant and Fast — 

 Action of a Funeral-Coach-horse — Of a Race-horse — Value of a Good Walker — Trotting — Slow and Fast — Value of Courage^ 

 Cutting and Brushing — Various Horse-boots lUustrat-'d — Value of Aged Hoi'ses — Sights and Sounds — Shying from Ignorance 

 — From Defective Eyesight — From Freshness — From Vice — A Patient Horse-breaker Required for a Colt — Examples — Pullers 

 and Runaways — A Horse that Bridles well — Value of a suitable Bit — High Condition and Want of Exercise — Excitement — 

 Vicious Habit — Use of a Martingale — Constitution and Temperament — Bad Feeders — Crib-biters — Value of a Placid Tempera- 

 ment — Violent Vice Hereditary — Effect of Cruelty — Bad Breaking — Slugs — The best Class of Horse courageous and placid — 

 Exercise Essential for high-couraged Horses — Mares and Riding Hacks may be Driven in Harness. 



There are several ways in which horses may be purchased, as, for instance, from a horse-dealer, 

 from a farmer who breeds or who buys colts and breaks them, at an auction, at a fair, from persons 

 who advertise in the newspapers, from a friend who happens to have to sell the sort of animal you 

 want. There are advantages and disadvantages in all these methods. 



If high-class and therefore expensive horses are required, and if — an important point — you 

 know exactly what you want, there is no better plan, if you reside in London, than to go the round 

 of the leading dealers on both sides of the water ; then, if you cannot find anything to suit you. to 

 place yourself in the hands of one of them, with or without a limit as to price, according to the 

 state of your finances. 



Respectable horse-dealers never buy an unsound horse if they know it ; and when they take 

 a horse that makes a little noise, or has some other defect, within the list of what makes a " useful 

 screw," they generally send it to be sold as a screw, at screw price. 



At a first-class dealer's, in town or country, you must expect, for obvious reasons, to pay a 

 full price. The trade expenses of such dealers ate very large ; besides the rent, wages, and fodder, 

 of an extensive establishment, there is the interest on the capital invested in horses purchased raw 

 from the breeder, or at great prices at the sales of famous studs, and all the losses by death, 

 sickness, and deterioration from — to use the veterinary surgeon's phrase — " diseases of the visual 

 and respiratory organs." 



" There's a horse," said a great dealer, " by which I shall lose two hundred pounds. I gave 

 two hundred pounds for him as a four-year, and expected to make at least three hundred by him 

 as a hunter. He had the influenza, and when I began to get him into condition he made a noise, 

 so, as he was of no use for hunting, I ordered him to be broken to harness. Tiie first time he 

 was put in the break he threw himself down, blemished his hocks, and broke his tail ; so now he's 

 barely worth twenty pounds." Then long credit and bad debts form not a small item of loss or 

 expense. The ideas on payment of certain distinguished members of the fashionable world used 



