294 SWAPPING HORSES AND HORSE JOCKEY TRICKS. 



string and Emma's tail came off with it. The situation 

 dawned on my mind at once. I had secured a " rein hugger " 

 and a kicker, and undoubtedly one standing at the head of her 

 class at that. Further developments demonstrated to me that 

 she was subject to kicking fits, and when attacked by one of 

 these would make kindling wood of anything coming in con- 

 tact with her heels. 



She reduced a nice, stout express wagon into a sorry look- 

 ing vehicle for me, and if, with plenty of help, I had not 

 been able to disconnect her from it, I doubt if the wheels even 

 would have been left. 



I once traded for a pair of gray Canadian ponies, colored 

 and marked exactly alike, and of which, from their close re- 

 semblance to each other, I was quite proud. They were a 

 beautiful dappled gray in color, with black manes, and the 

 upper part of their tails — about half — was black and the bal- 

 ance milk white. They were very showy for ponies and quite 

 stylish, but after I had owned them for a short time, while the 

 color of one remained intact, I found that the other had been 

 colored somewhat to match her mate, as her mane and tail 

 soon became all white and most of her dapple disappeared. 



I once bought a gray mare in Brighton — a Messenger (?) 

 mare, from a farmer's son, coming from one of the rural dis- 

 tricts of Massachusetts. He had, he said, driven in from home 

 that morning, a distance of about eighteen miles, with two 

 horses mainly for the purpose of selling one of them, as they 

 had three altogether and were not situated to winter more than 

 two. It was then in the fall ; he said they had needed three 

 during a part of the season, and especially during the haying 

 season, but now that the work was over they desired very 

 much to dispose of one horse, more especially so because of the 

 shortage of their recent crop. 



His outfit consisted of a brown horse eight or nine years old 



^of about 1,200 pounds, and a gray mare of seven years old "as 



pretty as a picture," but weighing only about 900 pounds. He 



had them tied to his wagon on the street eating hay from the 



