118 THE STUD. 



fact, if I was obliged to purchase a horse with 

 faulty hocks, there is a description of confirmed 

 spavin that, of the two evils, I would select in 

 preference to a confirmed existing curb. 



I must allow that decidedly the best and 

 fastest horse I ever possessed had two very rank 

 curbs, for which he had been severely fired, but 

 a considerable enlargement of the parts remained. 

 I knew him before I bought him, so was not 

 afraid of his getting worse. It was a frequent 

 remark among those who saw^ him go, that he was 

 never lame on his hocks. I knew better : the fact 

 was he was always lame, and had one hock been 

 cured, the lameness would have been evident 

 enough ; but luckily, both being equally aflPected, 

 it made him o-q with each alike. 



o 



But to show that this horse knew more about 

 his hocks than my neighbours did, he was an ex- 

 traordinary ^3//7Z^ leaper, but nothing could make 

 him attempt to take any thing in a stand, not 

 even in hand ; he would refuse, and not make a 

 trial at it. The fact was, he could not bend his 

 hocks sufficiently to enable him to do it, and he 

 felt he could not rest lons^ enouo-h on them to 

 leisurely raise his fore parts, or trust to their 

 propelling his body over a fence without the im- 

 petus of going fast at it. But he would fly any 

 fence that could be called practicable, and skim 

 over water like a swallow. 



