FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



true on his joints, don't have him, and give the 

 dealer the reason, — that is one thing you can 

 see and judge for yourself. Of course the only 

 probable result is that he may have to wear boots 

 somewhere, but moderate-priced horses are too 

 plenty to make it necessary to bother with 

 the crooked-legged sort. At " bargain-counter " 

 rates the aspect changes, but the IS3.98 horse 

 (marked up from I2.37) is better left to the expert 

 (if there are any such individuals). " Real old 

 English " prints give us short back, rare loins, deep 

 ribs, long quarters, great stifles, and second thighs, 

 and all that ; English sporting prose and verse 

 record their virtues and extol their necessity, and 

 the result would be as vastly edifying as desirable 

 were it not for the fact that, so far as actual im- 

 portance goes, every one of these much-lauded 

 points is not only non-essential, but practically of 

 little value ! A short back is becoming, is grace- 

 ful, is acceptable, but many of our best horses — 

 racing, chasing, saddling, trotting, driving, and 

 weight-carrying — have been as long as a street 

 in the back, as slack as a hammock in the loin, 

 as shallow in back-rib (not front, or round chest) 

 as a soup-plate, as short in the quarters as a 

 Jersey yearling, and as narrow and undeveloped 



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