The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

24-t The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
appearance, but dealers take care before showing them
to temporarily rouse them from their lethargic condition
by what they term " figing " them, that is by forcing
ginger up the anus, putting salt into its mouth, and an
application of the whip. Go through a dealer's stable,
and as soon as the voice of the dealer is heard all the
horses are on the alert; they know he does not carry his
whip in his hand for nothing. Who ever saw a dealer
without a whip ? No, without his whip he would be
like a pump without a handle. No sooner does the
master or one of his men enter the stable than the horses
begin to raise their tails, champ at their hips, and assume
all the appearance of good health and spirits ; in the
meantime the dealers use all their claptrap eloquence to
induce the novice to believe the animals are the best in
Britain, and they are too often successful in inducing
their intended victim into that belief. The writer once
heard one of these men say " That he did not mind what
they called him as long as they did not call him a fool,
for this world was made up of sharps and flats, and as
there were always two flats born to one sharp, there was
always a good stock to work upon, and there was no
credit in doing a fool." There are so many gentlemen
who fancy that they do know what a horse is, and think
they cannot be done, who are quite disgusted when they
get an animal from one of the professional copers which
turns out a rank screw. When I use the term dealers
in such a sweeping condemnation, I would have my
readers understand that I refer to copers at fairs, and the
advertising gentry ; that there are honest dealers is
without a doubt, but they are men who have a name at