BUYING AND SELLING HORSES 173 



only last night. Rub something on his throat, 

 Mike." 



Mike knows that something will be put, not on, 

 but into the beast's throat shortly. 



Treacle mixed with his oats will, they tell me, 

 pass a mild whistler for a day or two, or gun- 

 powder and butter. What effect it can have I 

 cannot think, but it is a common remedy. 



Worse than that there is a certain concoction of 

 arsenic known as The bottle, which will really 

 get them sound for some weeks. The secret 

 of this is very jealously guarded, though its 

 effects are well known. It has, however, the 

 effect of making a horse dreadfully thin and 

 poor, with his coat staring, so that if a whistler 

 which has been spun and is now offered as sound 

 looks badly, men who know shake their heads 

 wisely, and it is just as well to avoid that animal. 

 I bought a very good-looking youngster myself 

 last year which passed an examination, and was 

 roaring in six weeks. What happened there I shall 

 never know. 



If a certain leading dealer's wife clasps her hands 

 and says smiling, " In the name of God now, Mr. 

 Vet., I hope you'll find this one sound, for there 

 isn't a thing wrong with him," that vet. knows 

 that he is going to look at something very wrong 

 indeed and smiles softly. 



He is a man who would spin his best friend's 

 horse if he thought it was wrong in any way. 



