32 PURCHASING FROM THE STABLES. 



the Persian less so, the grey, chestnut, and bay, 

 having the good qualities about equally distributed 

 between them. Some of the Arabs say, the highest 

 caste horses are generally bay, and they ought to 

 know best. I speak of what come to India. " A 

 good horse cannot be of a bad colour ;" but there is 

 a great deal of fancy in colour, some outre people 

 preferring a dirty white, or dun, piebald, or tiger- 

 marked. 



ARRIVING THIN. 



Many of the horses arrive in the boats quite skele- 

 tons, and badly hide-bound. You must not be de- 

 terred from purchasing these. The head, jaws, chan- 

 nel, nostrils, mouth, lips, eye, and ears ; the breadth 

 of the haunches ; the straightness of the spine from 

 the fall of the withers to the setting on of the tail ; 

 the position of the legs ; the three essential bones ; the 

 large square knee, wiry suspensory ligament, and 

 clean back sinews ; none of these are affected by a 

 horse being thin. The belly may hang like a cow's, 

 the ribs may stick out, the neck may have lost its 

 crest, and the quarters may have sunk down to a 

 frightful hollow : the thigh, stifle, and forearm will, 

 however, yet show a little muscle, if there ever was 

 any ; and all that frightful hollow at the quarters will 

 fill up to its proper blood-form in a very few months, 

 if the spine bone here is only straight, and not droop- 

 ing ; the neck also will regain its crest, and the belly 

 draw up, as the horse gets into condition : but if, 

 added to this thinness, there should be any dropsical - 

 like swelling under the chest or belly, the breath foul, 

 the flanks perceptibly moving with a rise and fall, 



