Some of the dealers are wits and most of them have quaint expressions and sayings. The following sample will suffice: A dealer was seen exercising a horse so badly foundered in his hind feet that he not only walked on his heels but stood with his fore and hind feet almost on the same spot under his body. “Say! What are you goin’ to do with that critter!” asked a bystander, and like a flash came the answer, “Take him to Indiana to tramp sourkraut in a barrel.” The Winter Board Trick. A farmer read an advertisement in a city paper asking for a winter home and board for two family horses that the owner desired to leave comfortably provided for in the country during his absence in Europe. The farmer went to the city to investigate and found a fine pair of horses in a swell stable. Soon a bargain, profitable to the farmer, was arranged at a specified rate per week for board, stabling and care during the winter, but as the pleased stranger was about to leave for home, the stableman said, “Here, you are a stranger to me, and therefore you ought to put up some security for having such a valuable pair of horses in your care.” After some discussion, the farmer was induced to deposit $100 as security, and went home, congratulating himself upon the good winter’s profit he would have in looking after the horses which were to be shipped to him by train the following day. In due course, two horses arrived, but they were old “plugs,” worth perhaps $5 a piece. The swindle cost the farmer $90 and his expenses, for when he went to the city to hunt up the sharper, he found the stable in the same old place, but the bird had flown, and no one could tell him where. How Horses Catch Cold. An old time farrier wisely says: “Many farmers and tradesmen get too much drink when they go to market, and then set off home, riding like madmen, and calling at some public house on the road to get more of the _soul and body destroying evil_, leave their horses to stand sweating at the door, where it is no wonder that they get cold. Wagoners, carters, and coal carriers, are also often guilty of this abominable practise.” Tricks in Measuring Horses. It is often important to have a horse not less than some given height, and great care has to be taken in making the necessary measurement with the “hand stick” (hippometer). If the horse is under or over the desired height the dealer may irritate the animal so that an exact measurement is difficult or impossible to make. If the horse is undersized the dealer will try to stand him with the hind feet low. In the stable or yard everything is prepared so that this may be easily done. Another plan is to put on abnormally thick shoes, or those having calkins; the animal’s head is kept lowered so that the withers will be correspondingly heightened. Opposite methods are practised when a horse is a trifle too high for show-yard requirements or mating, and such tricks have given buyers of horses for the army no end of trouble.