CHAPTER VI 



REPLENISHING THE STUD 



Offering the benefit of a little personal experience to men, 

 who being circumstanced like myself, and deeply engaged in 

 . . . important pursuits, might be glad to receive it. 



Caveat Emptor, The Adventures of a Gentleman in 

 Search of a Horse. 



Opinions vary considerably as to what is the best 

 time for a man to look about him to fill up the 

 breaks made in his stud by the wear and tear of 

 past seasons. Of course, the easiest way of an- 

 swering an important question like this is to say 

 to the tyro, buy a horse as soon as ever you see 

 one that is like suiting you. But that is just 

 where the difficulty comes in. You may think a 

 horse very like your purpose during the summer 

 months, you may buy him, and when November 

 finds the season again commenced, you may find 

 that, for your purpose, the horse on which you 

 prided yourself so much is worthless. There are 

 men who will hold out that the end of the season 

 is the best time for a man to buy a hunter, that 

 then he has lost all the fat which hides a multitude 

 of faults, and that his legs, if they have any in- 

 herent weakness, will then show it. All of which 

 contentions have much to recommend them, but 



