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a good-looking animal, and there are some who think they can buy a 

 horse as they would a walking-stick ; while there are few, indeed, who 

 think it necessary to put these two important questions to them- 

 selves, and fewer still who would feel comfortable under an imputa- 

 tion against their horsemanship, if made by another ; still, they may 

 " own the soft impeachment" to themselves. Yet a man cannot do 

 a more foolish thing than to buy a horse merely because he is 

 pleased with its outward appearance. An awkward rider will look 

 more ungraceful on a high-spirited horse than on one of more modest 

 pretensions, and he is more liable to throw such a horse down by the 

 rough or careless way in which he manages his bridle. 



I will suppose my reader has already determined the sort of 

 work he wishes a horse to perforin, and whether he can ride well or 

 the contrary. Next he should fix on the price he intends to give, and 

 allow no powers of persuasion on the part of the seller to alter his 

 determination. The next thing is to consider that the seller, be he 

 dealer or not, is, perhaps, equally as good a judge of his customer as 

 he is of his horses. If, when the horse is brought out, his general 

 appearance is satisfactory, it is prudent to see him through his paces 

 before going through a closer inspection. A close observation of the 

 action of a horse generally results in the discovery of those defective 

 points which require the most severe scrutiny. 



It is not so easy as at first sight appears to judge of a horse's 

 action ; in some of them it is much less easy to detect defective 

 action than to discover the limp caused by disease. Difference in 

 breeding will make considerable difference in the action. In a well- 

 bred horse there is usually an absence of high action ; he walks and 

 trots slower, but his canter and gallop are more graceful, easy, and 

 rapid than that of the half-bred ; the head is smaller, the crest 

 higher, the mane and tail more silky, the hocks and legs are flatter, 

 or, as the dealers say, " cleaner;" the tendons of the muscles in the 

 leg are more tense to the touch, and more distinctly developed ; the 

 pastern joints are usually longer, the feet smaller ; the outline of the 

 hind-legs, from the hock to the fetlock, is more upright ; the root of 

 the tail is better defined, and there is a general lightness and elas- 



