The “gyp” trick is to wet the hoof heads with turpentine, which sets up intense irritation and induces knee action. This is readily discovered by remembering to run the hands over the coronets when examining the horse, then noting if they smell of any drug. The horse trainer, on the other hand, develops high knee action by putting on heavy shoes, the toes being left long; by trotting and galloping the horse in plowed land, deep snow, or a deep bed of straw. He also frequently taps the legs back of the knees with a whip or light stick as the horse takes daily walking exercise. Soon the animal learns the trick of high stepping, and thus is ready to match with one of like kind and gait, for sale at a high figure to some rich man in the city. A coach horse with extraordinary high knee action was sold by a dealer to a city man for $400. In a few days the buyer returned the horse saying, “Sell him over again; you put him on me, now stick some one else with him.” This horse had stringhalt in both fore legs which caused him to go high. In buying a coach or hackney stallion or mare for breeding purposes, see to it that the high action is natural and not acquired or due to chorea, else the tendency to step high will not be transmitted to the progeny. The Artificial Tail Trick. Where a horse is bought without careful examination of the tail, it may transpire when too late for redress that the switching appendage has been joined on. We remember examining a fine, thoroughbred running horse that was to be used for saddle purposes. Everything passed scrutiny until we came to the tail, which was that of some other horse, nicely held in place by clamps. When it was removed it was found that the horse under examination possessed a mere vestigial stump of a tail—a regular shaving brush affair—and on that account the deal, like the tail, was all off. Draft and work horses are often offered with the tail braided and tied up. Where this is the case, the intending buyer should let the tail down and then he may find that a big foreign switch has been braided in with the scant supply of natural hair. The critical examination of the tail will also save the prospective purchaser from acquiring an animal afflicted with pigment tumors (see page 48), or one that is about to lose a portion of the tail by gangrene, due to keeping a cord too tightly and too long around the part when tied up in muddy weather, or while exposed for sale. Keeping a Horse “In the Air.”