14 XENOPHON ON HORSEMANSHIP. 



in relief on the pedestal. Still, I shall not 

 strike out of my work all the points in which 

 I chance to agree with him, but shall take 

 much greater pleasure in passing them on 

 to my friends, believing that I speak with 

 the more authority because a famous horse- 

 man, such as he, has thought as I do. And 

 then, again, I shall try to make clear what- 

 ever he has omitted. 



To begin with, I shall describe how a 

 man, in buying a horse, would be least 

 likely to be cheated. In the case of an 

 unbroken colt, of course his frame is what 

 you must test; as for spirit, no very sure 

 signs of that are offered by an animal that 

 has never yet been mounted. And in his 

 frame, the first things which I say you 

 ought to look at are his feet.^ Just as a 

 house would be good for nothing if it were 

 very handsome above but lacked the proper 

 foundations, so too a war-horse, even if all his 

 other points were fine, would yet be good for 

 nothing if he had bad feet; for he could not 

 use a single one of his fine points. 



The feet should first be tested by exam- 

 ining the horn ; thick horn '^ is a much better 



