126 HUMANE HORSE-TRAINING 



lack of experience, forgets to observe that the tush has 

 not yet put in an appearance. In the case of a mare, 

 the dealer has it all his own way — ^but to the experienced 

 eye the two-year-old mouth differs vastly to that of the 

 five-year-old mouth. 



Many unprincipled dealers have a rascally trick of 

 sawing off an aged horse's teeth, making holes in 

 the crown, and then pin-firing the holes to imitate the 

 natural marks of a six-year-old horse. This is known as 

 "bishoping," because the first gentleman to introduce 

 the vile operation was Mr. Bishop. 



I saw a horse only recently who had been bishoped. 

 He was old in appearance, and upon examining his 

 mouth I saw that his top row of teeth were longer than 

 the lower set, and instead of the crowns being an oblong 

 shape, like a natural six-year-old, I noticed that they 

 were round, for as the horse grows older the top of the 

 tooth or the crown gradually becomes round in shape 

 and the marks disappear ; that is to say, the cavities, or 

 cups, fill up. Hundreds of horses were bishoped during 

 the war days, and sold to the army buyers as six-year-old 

 horses. I saw dozens at the many remount sales I 

 visited. Some had been cleverly bishoped, whilst others 

 had been roughly done by less experienced masters of 

 the wicked art. 



