The dealer tries to keep a horse “in the air” as much as possible when showing him to a prospective buyer, but the latter should be sure to examine the horse when he is “standing at ease.” The object of keeping the horse rattled by cracking whips, shaking barn door latches, rattling a whip handle inside of a derby hat, whooping, yelling, and chasing behind him, is to make him appear spirited, or to hide some lameness. Often the horse so treated has a spavin, the laming effects of which disappear with exercise, and this also is true if the horse has navicular disease or chorea. This absurd treatment of the horse is customary in the selling of a heavy draft stallion that has been so fattened, pampered and drugged that he is practically asleep half the time, and has to be waked up by strenuous means to give him an appearance of life. A naturally acute and wide-awake horse needs little urging. The Loose Shoe Trick. When a horse is a poor mover, but stylish and likely to be a prize winner in the show ring, the owner tries to avoid putting him through his paces before the judges. A shoe is loosely tacked on, so that when the horse is trotted it comes off, and the owner then blames imperfection of motion to the loss of the shoe. We remember a case in the judging ring where a stallion with notoriously poor, flat, brittle hoofs was being trotted out for inspection by the awarding committee. At the first trot out, off flew the shoe, carrying with it a goodly portion of horny wall. “Too bad, too bad!” condoled the judge with the owner, who instantly replied, “Oh, that’s all right; a horse with a foot like that will never miss it!” And the judge—a beginner—seemed to take it for granted that the foot was a specially good one, precisely as he was expected to do, and he gave the horse a prize, although he had not been properly shown out like his rivals. Wire Marks Over Side-Bones. Instances have been disclosed where gashes have purposely been cut with a knife on the hoof head just over a prominent side-bone so that when the wounds healed and left large scars the side-bones might be laid to a wire cut. This trick is mostly used in the case of a stallion that might, on account of a side-bone, be refused a license for public service in states where laws are in force for the supervision of the horse breeding industry. In Wisconsin, which was the first state to enact a stallion service law, we found large scars over side-bones on both fore feet of a pure-bred draft stallion. In another case, where a complaint was filed to the effect that a stallion was unsound from side-bone, the owner claimed by letter that the side-bone was due to a calk wound. Examination by a veterinarian disclosed the fact that the wound scar was over a side-bone on a _hind_ foot, and there were two large side-bones on each fore foot and no scars on the latter. The state license of this horse was promptly cancelled for cause. Wedging a Cribber.