CONDITION. 205 



diseases are so many, that the reader may be induced 

 to despair of finding a horse sufficiently free from 

 them to be sound enough for use, for they are 

 seldom mentioned in a mitigated form : so, what 

 between the looking for perfection, and the fear 

 of purchasing a combination of maladies, the 

 reader mio'ht q-o w^ithout a horse at alL 



I have meant this book to steer a middle course. 

 It is not a w^ork on the perfections of the animal, 

 or of his complaints; it is, or, at least, I have 

 meant it to be, a flxir discussion of the quantum of 

 inconvenience likely to accrue from different im- 

 perfections in the horse. Weighing well, therefore, 

 the poll)' and contre, in selecting a horse with any of 

 these, for one or some, depend on it, almost every 

 horse w^ill have, the reader's good sense wdll 

 enable him to decide on wdiat imperfection is the 

 least objectionable for the particular purpose for 

 which he means to purchase. Perfection he can- 

 not get; but I sincerely hope that the perusal 

 of this work may, in some measure, assist him in 

 purchasing a horse with fewer objectionable 

 points about him than I fear will be found to 

 exist in the work itself. 



THE END. 



