The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-10-30

consider Is the horse, for, though the
purchasing of the other stock should al
ways be deferred till the barns have
been overhauled. and fences repaired
horses are necessity the moment the
farm is taken In hand Nothing can be
done even in the way of preparation for
the other stock, without a team.
Most OF the jockeying in age, sound
ness and so forth, Is practiced by the
dealers in second hand horses-that Is
horses that have been used for one OF
more-sometimes a good many more
seasons since they were first put on the
market. In reputable stables, where
new horses are handled, there is not
very much danger of a novice being de-
ceived as to age and soundness. But
even the most straightforward dealer
does not feel 1t incumbent upon him to in
struct his customers In points of excel
lence; and, although he is always willing
to say which of several horses Is best
/ formation Is always a little unsafe when
coming from so interested a source.
In trying to impart this needed infor-
nation I shall use the simplest of terms,
such as anyone, horseman or not, can
clearly understand. For horsemanship
is not 80 abstruse a thing as to require
a language OF its own. Still, 1t is no
more than fair for me to say that as
the terms used are, of course, relative,
some study is necessary to get their full
meaning.
Feet and Legs Most Important
The first things. always. to consider in
a horse are his feet and legs, for 1t is
clear that even If he were absolutely per-
feet in other respects he would be of
little value If anything we're the matter
with his feet or legs. His feet should be
symmetrical in shape and neither too
deep nor too fiat, for the too-deep foot
is more liable to become contracted and
the fat foot always gives trouble on
hard roads OF these two defects. how
ever, the fiat foot is the worse.
The limbs should be clean-that is, free
from freshness, and they should have
plenty of bone and substance. The fore
legs should be long from the horses $
body down to the knee and short from
the knee to the fetlock joint. 1t is well
to remember that this point is an ex-
ceedingly important one In road horse
The hind legs should be both clean and
fiat. A round leg is always to be avoid
ed, and 1t cannot be too clean. II II
looks as Ii the skin had been removed,
the bone scraped and the skin then put
back again, so much the better; but
limbs as clean as this are only found
on high bred horses and are not to be
expected in cold blooded or draft stock
Much hair on the limb is also to be be
, avoided. There are, 1t is true, many
good draft horses that are rather hair,
limbed, but the feature adds nothing tc
their value and in a road horse would
be intolerable. The gambrel joint should
be strong and well developed, and II is
better that it be, relatively, near the
ground-though this is not as important
as in the case of the fore knee.
Unsoundnesses of the limbs, such as
spavins, ringbones and the like, are not
much to be feared In buying new
horses, but should always be looked for
They are very easily described, but il
would be we'll to study them further by
examining some horse that is known to
have them. A SPAWN is a bony enlarge
ment on the inside of the gambrel joint.
A ringbone-worst of all defects of this
character, though all are bad enough-is
bony enlargement running around the
ankle between the hoof and the fetlock
joint. Splints are small bony enlarge
ments on the inside of the foreleg be-
, tween the knee and the fetlock point
They rarely do much harm unless unduly
large or situated too near the knee. The
horse should stand squarely upon his
legs. His feet should be we'll under him,
not sprawled apart, and his hoofs should
be straight fore and aft neither toeing
In nor out.
The Body "WeIl Ribbed Up"
We now come to the body. The back
should be short. The hind quarters
should be we'll developed, with the hip
joints fairly we'll forward The hind
quarters are most elegant when the line
from the top of the hips to the root of
the tail is only moderately oblique-
neither too straight nor too dropping.
The straightness or obliquity of this line
does not seem to affect the horses use
, fulness very much; but the degree have
! mentioned is one of the points of equine
perfection and such should receive
consideration whenever possible
: The body should be nicely rounded and
well ribbed up''-that is, the space be-
. tween the ribs and the hipbone should
be short. Horses that are deficient in
this respect are hard keepers and, as a
: rule, less satisfactory generally than
those that are more compactly put to-
= gether The shoulders should be slant
ing; this confirmation makes a shoulder
that is both strong and elegant. An up
right shoulder is bad thing and always
to be avoided. The chest should be deep
SO as to give ample lung capacity.
The neck, so far as Its utility goes. may
be either short or long, but the latter Is
/ more elegant. 1t should not be neshy
J nor "beefy," and at a point little aft
r of where 1t joins the head 1t should be
, bent q little. This conformation leaves
the windpipe curved instead OF bent al
an angle, and so gives the breathing ap-
paratus free play.
The head, on high-bred horses, is rather
\ small and very clean and bony; the
cleaner the head the better on horses OF
all kinds. In shape, when viewed from
the front, 1t should slant in little from
the eyes to the top; when viewed from
the side the face line should be straight,
: not aqullne. The eyes should be me-
dunn In size, not too near the top of
the head and set we'll part from each
other. The ears should be fine, pointed
and of medium length; when pointing
forward they should be parallel, not
slanting apart.
All these rules are simple and easily
remembered but before anyone attempts
to apply them to living subject in the
actual selection of a horse, he should
compare them with live horse and fully
grasp their meaning For without such
practical illustration they cannot be abb
sorbed thoroughly enough.
With these rules thoroughly learned,
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