50 PURCHASING FROM THE STABLES. 



pected ? It would be contrary to nature to find a 

 good produce. 



A half, or three parts bred " horse, may often be 

 found with all the good points of a thorough-bred, 

 save three or four, and the want of these three or 

 four shall indubitably prove him no thorough-bred. 

 In lieu of the large brilliant eye, thin skin, small, flat 

 shank-bone, and large back sinews, substitute a small- 

 er eye, a thicker skin, a larger round shank-bone, 

 and small tied-in back-sinews; who will then believe 

 him thorough-bred? Or, to take other points, in lieu 

 of the clean, wide jowl, thin open nostril, deep mouth, 

 and large muscular hind quarters, substitute a closed 

 fleshy jowl, a thick shut nostril, a heavy-lipped mouth, 

 and hind quarters, deficient of thigh muscle ; and who 

 will then believe him thorough-bred ? With faults 

 like these, he must gallop a mile and a half in very 

 good time before you will obtain thorough-bred price. 

 Even one single faulty point will frequently enable a 

 good judge to detect a flaw in the blood. And this 

 brings me to a question I have often heard mooted. 

 When two horses are brought out and sold, each 

 showing externally every point of thorough breeding 

 and good build in exact equal proportion, and both 

 of equal energy and equal supposed good constitution, 

 how is it that one turns out far superior to the other, 

 and how is it to be distinguished ? To distinguish at 

 the time of purchase between two so exactly equal is 

 impossible ; but supposing every point was allowed 

 by the best judges to be exactly equal, and we could 

 positively know that the constitutions of each were 

 exactly equally good and strong, still, in India we 

 are ignorant of their blood of their line of descent : 

 and even if we knew that as correctly as they do in 



