46 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



unfortunately there is a weak place in the advice. 

 In the first place, there is a long summer's keep to 

 pay for, which adds considerably to the apparently 

 reasonable price that the horse may have cost at 

 first. Then, again, there may be such a thing as 

 the horse having been carefully nursed all the year, 

 that what you think are only trade marks are 

 something worse ; and that when your horse 

 comes into work you find that he is simply a 

 lame one, and for your purpose worth about an 

 eighth of what he cost. So, unless a man is a 

 good judge, and even if he be a good judge, 

 it is scarcely wisdom to buy at the end of the 

 season. 



What to buy and where to buy it are naturally 

 questions which present themselves to a man who 

 is in want of horses, and perhaps the first question 

 is the one that had best be answered first. To 

 begin with, a man should make up his mind at 

 once whether he intends to try to hold his own 

 with the flyers of the Hunt with which he is about 

 to cast in his lot, or whether his ambition is of a 

 milder order, and he only requires an animal that 

 will show him a fair amount of sport without 

 making any strenuous effort in the way of gallop- 

 ing and jumping. Then, having made up his 

 mind as to his requirements, and as to the price 

 he intends to give for the horses he wants, let him 

 go to some respectable dealer — there are plenty 

 in any hunt of note — and say what he wants, and 

 when he wants it. And there is no better time 

 than September for a man to make his wants 

 known, for he will be able to tell, in the few 

 gallops which generally take place in October, 

 whether the horse he has bought is like suiting 



