HOW TO BUY A HORSE. 53 



to correct the faults of a horse that has been spoiled 

 by a former rider, and my advice to the amateur is 

 not to attempt the latter, nor do I think it prudent 

 to purchase a horse, no matter how quietly it may 

 go during its trial, that has ever been really vicious. 

 One may often hear men of small experience in 

 riding boast that they are able to manage any horse, 

 but the best horsemen I have ever seen did not 

 have such confidence in their powers, nor do I 

 believe that any man can sit an active horse, in 

 an ordinary saddle, if the animal understands how 

 to exert itself. Fortunately, most horses are im- 

 pressed with the idea that plunging, kicking, and 

 rearing are the best methods of getting rid of a 

 rider, and, when these fail, they accept their defeat 

 and go quietly until they feel that they are in the 

 hands of some one less experienced, when they may 

 repeat the same tactics. But when it occurs to 

 the mind of a wily horse to put its head between 

 its fore-legs, to arch its back, and then, after coming 

 to a stand-still, to ' buck ' violently, the rider must 

 go off, and the saddle, with girths still buckled and 

 intact, may follow him. Buck-jumping horses are 

 rare in Europe, but I have seen such in England 

 and in Germany. In buying a horse, one should 

 not mistake nervousness for mettle, dulness for 

 docility. The horse of mettle has such courage — 



