4 8 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



that degree of comfort that you require, and there 

 is no sending a horse back to a farmer. You are 

 also more likely to get a misfit at a farmer's, and it 

 is pretty certain that you will never get a bargain 

 at the farmer's hands, whatever the dealer may do. 

 I am not one of those, however, who blame the 

 farmer for charging more to a private customer 

 than he does to a dealer, for the private customer 

 is a man who only comes once in a way, and does 

 not take all the horses, good, bad, and indifferent, 

 which the farmer breeds, as the dealer generally 

 does, if they are not too bad. And it is to this 

 very fact that I attribute the fact that a man 

 oftener gets a misfit when buying from a farmer 

 than when buying from a dealer. The dealer has 

 his money locked up in horses ; the farmer breeds 

 one or two, and does not care much whether he 

 suits his customer or not. The dealer, on the 

 contrary, is anxious that his customer should have 

 the animal he wants ; if he pleases him, he knows 

 that it will lead to increased custom. One thing 

 which makes the dealer's horse a better one for 

 the average hunting man to buy is that he is 

 ridden by many different men, he gets accustomed 

 to different handling, and he soon gets to accommo- 

 date himself to fresh riders as a consequence of his 

 training and his practice. Then there is the great 

 factor of being suited at once. I take it that no 

 man who hunts for pleasure wants to spend his 

 time rough-riding a raw or unformed horse, or 

 re-breaking one that does not come nicely to his 

 hand. With most dealers there is no difficulty on 

 this point. If the horse does not suit they will 

 take him back and furnish another. Of course, 

 they will charge something for so doing, but the 



