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The Tricks Of Jockeys

The Tricks Of Jockeys image
Parent Issue
Day
23
Month
September
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A writer for Har per' 's Weekl: lias been having a talk with Mr. Bishop, a weílknown horso-dealer in New York City, and the following is a part of what the dealer told him: ' "'Xricks?' There isn't any end to them. If you want to buy a horse, don't believe your own brothor. Take no man's word for it. Your eye is }"our market. Don't buy a horse in hurness. Unhitch him and take everything off but the halter and lead him around.' If he has a corn, p.r is stilf, or has any othur failing you can see it. Let him go by himself a üttle ways, and if he taves right into anything you may know he's stone blind. No matler how clear and bright his eyes are, he can't see auy more than a bat. Back him up, too. Some horses show their weakness or tricks that way when they don't in any other. "But be as smart as you can, and you'll get caught sometimos. Even an expert gets stuck. A horse may look ever so uice, and go a niile a minute, and yet have iits, for instance. There isn't a live man could teil it till soine(hing happens. Or he may have a weak back. Give him the whip and ofl' he goes for a mile or two; then, all of a sudden, he sits right down in tho road. After a rest he gets tip and Starts again, but he soon sits down for good, and nothing but a derriok could rai.se hira. There are sharpers in New York who make a business of selling su' h horses. Af ter the sale they havo their agents slyly follow the buyer, and, when the iinal breakdown comes, they step up, rad, lifter expressing sympathy for him, buy tlie horse back again for a mere song, only to seü him again at a fanoy figure to the next greenhorn who may corne aloug. Even a horse with the hoaves niav be doctored up so you can't teil him. They feed him on wet grain for a while, and then, when thoy show off, drive him so smartly that you can't see there's anything wrong. f' Do you know what a dummy is? You don't? Well, I'll teil you. He's a tiorse that don't know anything. His arain is ono wrong. A dark stall and overfeeding have ruined his digestión, and that has alfected his braiu. Drive ■vim out a ways, and pretty soon he'U lurk his head around and pull right itraight on one line. You can't hold liru; it's no use to try. The tirst thing you know he's dnmped you in a diteh, r smashedyou up against a lamp-post, l'ie him in tíie stable, and he'll back up ill hc breaks every halter }7ou put on ïim. Stretch a rope aeross the end of he stall so he can't back out and he'll clitnb up the wall. "Maybe you doa't believe it, but it's so. 1 havo aeen one goclear up stairs; and once I savv oue go out of a seuoiidslory window, and another walk off a dook into the river. Watch liim whea ho's oating, and you' LI often see him wo to sleep with the feed in his moutn. He doesn't know, hes just a fooi. I bought one of these idiota when I was a beginner in the business. He broke 'vervlliiiio; in the sl;ib!e, and t;heu went np the wall like a luaaüc. Afterward, one of the boys ihat gróomèd him för :io man I bouoht him of admUUid tlüit, hu anim.il was 'jint a l-c-e-tli bit umb.' I can teil one how the minute sec him. He step un ■immoniv high. n most casos, when yon seo a horse do iat, be sure lie's a dummy. ''Whatdo we c! with the liorses ve gut stuck on?' Se.nd lliom t(j the uptlOQ, wliere buyer take all the sks. No reputable de.iler ever sells a )ad one auy other wav. It loesn't ay to do it.' " I eould talk all day abou these things, only your paper is t'uli novv, I nii'l' TH stop. Bul don't v'OU cvi'.' buya h"i-s. yonng mui. irtríesá yo.ii know how to do it."

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat