216 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



or several of these, and as each show is followed 

 by a sale there is our easy opportunity. But I am 

 persuaded that to one not himself a horse-show 

 exhibitor nothing is more unwise than to buy a 

 horse-show winner. These horses are most high- 

 ly keyed up and trained by most skilful hands. In 

 the hands of one less skilful they rapidly deteri- 

 orate and in the ordinary park and road work 

 they lose a major part of that style which origi- 

 nally inspired the purchase. This skill in hand- 

 ling has made itself so manifest that even in the 

 horse shows the managers have been obliged 

 to exclude the dealers from many of the classes. 

 There are professional horse-show exhibitors 

 notwithstanding this exclusion of the dealers, 

 and their horses are probably more unsafe 

 to buy than those of the dealers themselves. 

 No, the horse-show horse is for the horse-show 

 exhibitor. 



Another discouraging thing about one's first 

 horses is the illnesses which they contract. As fre- 

 quently as not this is due to the inexperience of 

 the new owner, or to the change of home and cli- 

 mate. Dealers buying horses frequently have the 



