CHOICE OF THE HORSE. 887 



which the latter will experience in his transactions with the former. It 

 is not sufficient to go to the dealer and ask him to show what he has to 

 sell : in order to buy as a skilful connoisseur it is necessary to be well 

 acquainted with the habits and business ways of a trader whose every 

 interest is to deceive and swindle the buyer ; besides, it is important to 

 know what precautions are needed in dealing with him. These ideas 

 will form the subject of the two following sub-chapters. 



1. THE SELLER. 



The seller, as is known, is a breeder or a horse-dealer ; more rarely 

 he is a private gentleman. But we will lay no stress upon these distinc- 

 tions, since any man who sells horses, whatever his social status, tries to 

 present them in the best possible conditions, in order to reap the greatest 

 profit from the sale. Trickery, fraud, and deception seem in this con- 

 nection to be inherent in the very nature of things. The diiference 

 between one seller and another will be merely a diiference in degree. 

 Even the most scrupulous will acknowledge only certain defects in their 

 horses; the discovery of the others they will leave to the sagacity of 

 the purchaser. As to those who are less honest, they conceal every- 

 thing except the qualities which they exaggerate and even improvise 

 according to the requirements of the case. To declaim against these 

 tendencies would be a waste of time. The best thing to do is to guard 

 against being deceived by making one's self acquainted with the tricks 

 resorted to by horse-dealers. These consist in the employment of a 

 special diet and of certain attentions and certain hygienic conditions in 

 the dressing, in a special toilet, in clipping, and in appropriate shoeing. 



a. By diet, the horse-dealer can easily manage to increase or dimin- 

 ish the size of the abdomen and render the development of this region 

 proportional to that of the other parts of the body. Thus, by giving 

 watery food, such as hay, grass, etc., he can modify the shape of the 

 so-called narrow-gutted horse ; by substituting for the ration of hay a 

 larger quantity of oats, he will cause the cow-belly to disappear, and at 

 the same time will render the coat less coarse and more glossy. 



b. By regulating the light in the stable and slightly increasing the 

 temperature, the coat will be made to assume brighter shades and 

 to reflect a more brilliant lustre. 



c. By covering the body with blankets, and keeping a hood upon 

 the head, neck, shoulders, and breast, the coat is rendered cleaner, more 

 glossy, more supple, and more smooth. But it is especially by the aid 

 of good grooming, frequently repeated, that the coat is beautified. 

 By means of the curry-comb, a wisp of straw, a brush, and a sponge, 



