2 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



stud-groom possesses. He may be a good rider and 

 an excellent "caretaker" of horses, but that does not 

 necessarily imply that his opinion is worth much when 

 it comes to picking a horse. He may talk as if he 

 knew it all, and describe the horses his choice has 

 fallen upon as if they were all world-wonders, but in 

 nine cases out of ten his own self-interest is prompt- 

 ing him. It is a perfectly legitimate practice in all 

 horse-dealing for a commission to pass between th'e 

 groom and the dealer, but it is a practice that is often 

 taken advantage of by a groom with elastic morals, 

 who persuades his inexperienced master to consummate 

 any sale that will accrue most to his personal advan- 

 tage and from which he will derive the largest com- 

 mission. 



In any case, this method of leaving the choice of 

 one's horses entirely in the hands of an employee, no 

 matter how trusted he may be, is scarcely one that 

 appeals to the real sportsman. 



Nor can the true lover of sport indorse the practice 

 of buying, at fabulous prices, horse-show champions 

 as they emerge from the ring with the tricolored ribbon. 

 Any one with sufficient ready cash can manage, by 

 this scheme, to get together a fairly good stable of 

 horses, but how long the occupants of such a stable 

 continue to be champions remains to be seen. For 

 even the fabulous price merely bought the horse and 

 not the rider, and in more cases than one, to those 

 "in the know," the rider has contributed at least 50 

 per cent to the horse's ability to win. I know of one 

 gentleman who used to buy and sell a great many 

 horses for his amusement, and who hung on the wall 

 of his exercise-ring a large sign: "I do not sell the 

 rider with the horse." 



