Horse Buying and Horse Trying 123 



lest he kick or balk — he had better do it now 

 before you own him than after you buy him — he 

 had much better smash the dealer's wagon than your 

 ow^n. Besides this, you do not want to know how 

 he will behave in an expert's hands, but what his 

 deportment is when you are holding the reins. 



Should the trial be satisfactory, call in a veteri- 

 nary surgeon, and, telling him that all you expect 

 is " practical " soundness, ask him how nearly the 

 horse on trial fills the bill. Do not let him lapse 

 into prophecy as to w^hat changes may take place in 

 the animal's internal economy, after six years' usage, 

 but hold him down rigidly to present conditions. If 

 he says the bill of health is a reasonably clear one, 

 and likely, in his opinion, to continue so, settle for 

 your purchase, and send him home satisfied that so 

 far as your opportunities go you have proceeded 

 wisely, and that, at all events, you have not allowed 

 to any carping critic the quasi-right to, if the w'orst 

 happens, continually croak that most intensely irri- 

 tating sentence in our language, " I told you so! " 



