101 



" A very training expression^ and a trainer's 

 usual opinion/' said I, " and quite correct^ parti- 

 cularly as regards two years' old; but I am not 

 aware that it is quite according to training rules 

 to leave a mass of soft flesli on colt, filly^ or horse^ 

 to be got off in about a month, b}^ which time 

 your liorses ought to be quite fit to go. Why, 

 my friend, do what you will with that horse, 

 he will not be fit to go with hounds till after 

 Christmas : pray, was he as fat when you got 

 him?" 



" Very nearly," said my friend. 



" Then," said I, " depend on it he is good for 

 nothing, or a lame one; he has been tried and 

 found the one or the other, or both, so has been 

 suffered to be idle, and thus got in his j)resent 

 state of fat. It is quite true, that hunters sold 

 some weeks after the hunting season have usually 

 got fresh in themselves; and a dose of physic, 

 alteratives, carrots, mashes, warm water, stimu- 

 lants, bandages, and gentle exercise, judiciously 

 administered, brings their constitution and legs 

 into saleable form ; but why did you select a 

 horse that you must have judged had not been in 

 work of any sort ? " 



" Why, to own the truth," said my friend, " I 

 saw a good many dealers about this horse in par- 

 ticular ; so I thought if he was cheap at the price 

 they offered, he could not be dear to me at a 



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