THE HORSE 27 



ignate " bad." Every bad point is a weakness, it 

 must be remembered, and, as such, liable at any- 

 time to cause the breakdo\vn of the entu'e animal. 



Age foe Work 

 A horse is probably at his very best at six years 

 of age. It is never wise to purchase one of less 

 than fom* for moderate work, or under five for 

 hard work. Horses which are "out of mark," 

 i. e.^ over eight years of age, if well formed and 

 sound, are often likely to be more useful for hard 

 work than younger ones. At this age, if they 

 possess weaknesses they will, under ordinary con- 

 ditions, have already broken do^vn, so that it may 

 be taken as a broad rule that a sound old horse is 

 generally a good horse, and for light harness work, 

 or work which is not too fast, there is no reason 

 why an animal should not last until it is well into 

 the twenties. 



Blemishes and Uis-soui^dness 



The vendor of a broken-lmeed horse always has 

 a plausible tale of the exact manner in which the 

 accident occurred, and it always is an accident, 

 and never due to any fault on the part of the 

 horse. In nine cases out of ten, however, the 



