416 HINTS ON PURCHASING. 
for though I have seen many horses with them, very few ever 
were hurt by either defect. Nothing, however, would induce 
me to buy a horse with a thorough-pin; for I have never 
known one so affected to stand a complete preparation, no 
matter what, or how numerous the remedies that were tried. 
I remember well the late Lord George Bentinck buying 
Defender of Mr. Isaac Sadler for 2,000 guineas (a large sum 
in those days). On his arrival at Danebury his lordship 
asked my grandmother (Mrs. A. Day) to look at him; and 
she said he had a thorough-pin, though perhaps it was not 
fully developed, adding that he would never stand a prepara- 
tion. On this startling and unwelcome announcement his 
lordship immediately sent for that eminent veterinary sur- 
geon the late Mr. Field, who after examining the horse said 
he apprehended no danger, and that he thought the defect 
would yield to mild treatment ; if not, that a seton would 
effect a cure. This and many other remedies were tried, but 
to no purpose, and the horse never ran afterwards, and was 
put early to the stud. 
When horses break down they are best sold or given away 
for other than racing purposes ; because not one in a hundred 
ever stands afterwards. Soapstone was an exception, and so 
was Musdeal ; the latter was fired, but the chances of standing 
with a crooked sinew. are too remote to be worth a trial. 
Horses sometimes are lame from big joints, and if the en- 
largement be on the inside, it is, as I have observed before, as 
a rule, fatal; but, if on the outside, with a little rest and blis- 
tering, the joint generally gets right, though the enlargement 
remains. Capote and Maid of the Vale had such legs; yet 
both stood, and won lots of races. A fair-sized foot is pre- 
ferable to a very large or extremely small one; for the former 
of the two is better suited for cross-country purposes than for 
