As to any reluctance on the horse's part to being bitted or mounted, dancing and twisting about and the rest, (9) you will get a more exact idea on this score, if, when he has gone through his work, you will try and repeat the precise operations which he went through before you began your ride. Any horse that having done his work shows a readiness to undergo it all again, affords sufficient evidence thereby of spirit and endurance. (9) Reading {talla dineumata}, lit. "and the rest of his twistings and twirlings about." To put the matter in a nutshell: given that the horse is sound-footed, gentle, moderately fast, willing and able to undergo toil, and above all things (10) obedient--such an animal, we venture to predict, will give the least trouble and the greatest security to his rider in the circumstances of war; while, conversely, a beast who either out of sluggishness needs much driving, or from excess of mettle much coaxing and manoeuvering, will give his rider work enough to occupy both his hands and a sinking of the heart when dangers thicken. (10) Al. "thoroughly." IV We will now suppose the purchaser has found a horse which he admires; (1) the purchase is effected, and he has brought him home--how is he to be housed? It is best that the stable should be placed in a quarter of the establishment where the master will see the horse as often as possible. (2) It is a good thing also to have his stall so arranged that there will be as little risk of the horse's food being stolen from the manger, as of the master's from his larder or store-closet. To neglect a detail of this kind is surely to neglect oneself; since in the hour of danger, it is certain, the owner has to consign himself, life and limb, to the safe keeping of his horse. (1) Lit. "To proceed: when you have bought a horse which you admire and have brought him home." (2) i.e. "where he will be brought as frequently as possible under the master's eye." Cf. "Econ." xii. 20. Nor is it only to avoid the risk of food being stolen that a secure horse-box is desirable, but for the further reason that if the horse takes to scattering his food, the action is at once detected; and any one who observes that happening may take it as a sign and symptom either of too much blood, (3) which calls for veterinary aid, or of over-fatigue, for which rest is the cure, or else that an attack of indigestion (4) or some other malady is coming on. And just as with human beings, so with the horse, all diseases are more curable at their commencement (5) than after they have become chronic, or been wrongly treated. (6) (3) "A plethoric condition of the blood." (4) {krithiasis}. Lit. "barley surfeit"; "une fourbure." See Aristot. "H. A." viii. 24. 4. (5) i.e. "in the early acute stages." (6) Al. "and the mischief has spread."