FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



the practical, for that 's all you can get, anyway. 

 No horse is absolutely sound, so why bother? 

 And if he could be, and you used him hard 

 enough and long enough, he would not remain 

 so. The fact that your bookkeeper has a " base- 

 ball " finger does n't worry you ; why need the 

 fact that your beast exhibits an odd splint, spavin, 

 bog, etc., so long as they cause no lameness, in- 

 convenience you more than him ? An owner 

 may have "spavin on the brain," and it will 

 affect him far more, nine times out of ten, than 

 it does his family slave, who cheerfully carries it 

 about for years. Nothing is so certain as the 

 fact that, if a blemish or unsoundness exists, there 

 can hardly be another in the same place and of 

 the same sort, and the man who buys his blem- 

 ishes with his horse is relieved of a vast amount 

 of anxiety as to whether they may come, by the 

 fact that they already exist. You may say that 

 this is the philosophical view to take of it, but 

 what more important and generally satisfactory 

 view can one take of anything ? And what is 

 life, anyway, without the ability to so view mat- 

 ters generally ? Remember, this is not written 

 for the " expert " (?) owner, the rich buyer, the 

 wholesale user of horseflesh, but for the " little 



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