542 A HISTORY OF THE PERCHEEON HORSE 



ing up well and about the same distance apart at 

 top and bottom. He should show a clean-cut neck 

 nicely set on his shoulders, with his head up to 

 attract attention. I Avant always to see a wide 

 breast and clean, flat bone, not a meaty, large bone 

 (it will always give trouble, both in the stallion 

 and his offspring). Well-set limbs are essential; 

 see that he is not buck- or calf-kneed, and that he 

 is clean around his pastern joints. Look for side- 

 bones; they are considered by 75 per cent of the 

 farmers as a buyer's trick to buy horses cheap, but 

 they have worked more harm to the heavy horse 

 for market than any other one thing in the past 

 five years. See that the horse has a good hoof, not 

 the pancake kind or the narrow, contracted kind, 

 but a well-shaped, solid hoof. If one follows this 

 he will find a good front end. Next have the stallion 

 deep through the heart, close-coupled, good of 

 withers, strong in topline, well-sprung of rib and 

 with a place to carry some hay, not too sloping on 

 the hips, with a well-set hind leg clean at the hook, 

 no curbs, thoroughpins, bog or bone spavins, and 

 clean about his pasterns. See that his legs are well 

 set; no one wants a cow-hock or a crooked leg. Have 

 the salesman move the horse from you, first at a 

 walk, then at a trot; watch closely and see that he 

 moves straight away, that he is not a paddler or a 

 weaver. 



"Often high-fed horses that have had the ship- 

 ping fever or distemper are left wealc in the back 

 or a little thick in the wind. My advice would be 

 not to buy either kind because he is cheap; in the 

 long run he is high-priced. Our old stud sire, Scip- 

 ion, now in his ISth year, is as clean as a ribbon 

 all over and sound, except for being cut a little in 

 the wind, due to his age. 



