BUYING AND SELLING HORSES 175 



He had a very good little mare some years ago, 

 a brilliant huntress, but always just gone out if 

 you went to see her at home. 



Eventually her jumping tempted someone, who 

 took her home and found that she was a complete 

 crock, taking an hour to warm up, and also a vile 

 feeder. 



A heaver, one of those horses which make a 

 double heave in the stable, was passed off into a 

 friend of mine's stud the year before last. 



I helped to buy it, but we only saw it out, it was 

 a fine mover, and foolishly taken without an 

 opinion. He fed the hounds eventually. 



" Good morning," the dealers say if a horse is 

 lame in front, and " Good night," if lame behind. 



It is a simple way of preventing the torrent of 

 denial which would pour out if they called the 

 animal lame. 



A farming friend of mine who deals a little 

 himself and is somewhat crudely honest, told me 

 a tale of a horse at a town in the west of the 

 country. 



" I seen a gran'-lookin' horse an' he with two 

 stranger felleys, an' they but axin' twenty-five 

 pound for him. 



*' Up I lepped on him an' I likes him well and, 

 says I, ' I'll give ye twenty,' says I, ' if he matches 

 me.' But says I, I biginned to think thin. ' How 

 is it,' says I, half to myself and half to thim, 

 * that the Daylys wasn't at him ? ' says L 



