If the foot is held up from the litter with the hand, and with the stable-brush well impregnated with oil, so as to be left tolerably wet upon the surface, persevering patience (by holding the foot from the ground a few minutes) will prove, that the oil with which the hoof was so plentifully basted, has nearly DISAPPEARED, although no drop has fallen to the ground. What will the rigid disputant, or cynical Sceptic, oppose to this fact, when asked what is become of the OIL so recently laid on? From the fertile resources of "EXHALATION," "EVAPORATION," or even "running off," he can derive no assistance to support him in the erroneous opinion he has formed; and perhaps an obstinacy, from time and custom become habitual, will not permit him (till his judgment is more matured by experience) to admit, that it is lost to the eye, and taken up by ABSORPTION. This, however, is the fact, and to the incredulous, who are open to conviction, and willing to make the experiment, it will appear, that this treatment of the hoof, and the STOPPING previously mentioned, (if nightly persevered in,) will, in less than THREE SHOEINGS, completely restore and improve the most brittle and battered hoofs in the kingdom. So much cannot be said of unctuous or greasy substances; for, from their confidence, not possessing the property of penetration, they can add none to the EXPANSION of the HOOF; from the dry and preternaturally contracted state of which the defect generally arises; and by the additional growth and distension of the hoof alone can be relieved.
HOOF-BOUND
.—See Compression and Heels Narrow.
HORSE
—is the name of the most beautiful, the most useful, and the most valuable, animal, this or any other nation has to boast: the majestic extent of his formation, the graceful ease of every motion, the immensity of his strength, the smooth and glossy surface of his skin, the pliability of his temper, and, above every other consideration, his rapidity of action, and general utility, render him highly worthy the care, attention, and pecuniary estimation he is now held in from one extremity of the earth to the other. He is the most spirited and most powerful of all creatures; yet the most generous, docile, grateful and obedient to the purposes of man as an individual, as well as to all the agricultural and COMMERCIAL advantages of society at large. He may be justly termed the great main-spring of PLEASURE to one class, and of PROFIT to the other; without whose aid, the eternal routine of both must come to immediate termination, constituting a CHAOS very far beyond the most fertile imagination to conceive or describe.
The natural history, the form, and general utility, of the horse, is become so perfectly familiar to every eye, that the less will be required upon those points in explanation. The various pleasurable purposes, and useful talks, to which horses are appropriated in this country, has long since demonstrated the consistency of cultivating, by select and judicious propagation, each particular kind of stock, so as to render it individually applicable to the use for which it is intended. The numbers annually produced, and annually destroyed, within the circle of our own isle (even in time of peace) exceed common conception, and of which no computation can be tolerably formed. The long list constantly bred for, and engaged upon, the TURF; the SPORTS of the FIELD; the national establishment of MILITARY CAVALRY; the carriage horses of the opulent, rattling through every street of every city and large town in the kingdom; the thousands employed in AGRICULTURE, as well as all the DRAFT work of the METROPOLIS; in addition to the infinity annexed to MAIL and STAGE COACHES, as well as to the POST WORK, and those useful drudges denominated ROADSTERS, in the possession of every class of people, constitute an aggregate that in contemplation excites the utmost admiration.
The constantly increasing OPULENCE, or the constantly increasing LUXURY, has rendered the demand for horses so very superior to the example of any previous period, that no comparative statement of former and present value can hardly be ascertained. The fashionable rage for expeditious travelling, and of being conveyed at the rate of EIGHT or NINE miles an hour from one part of the kingdom to another, is the absolute furor of the times, and supported at an immense expence by those whose peculiar personal pride prompts them to display the advantages resulting from opulence, and the privileges from ostentation; to the incessant misery and premature destruction of thousands, whose services would be insured for years by a more moderate and HUMANE mode of treatment. The incredible increase of light carriages of every description, has opened such a field for the use of horses of airy form, and easy action, that they are now in eternal request, at more than double, and in many purchases TREBLE, what they were to be obtained for no more than twenty years since.
The different kinds of horses bred for various purposes, pass under the denomination of RUNNING HORSES, HUNTERS, CARRIAGE HORSES, CART HORSES, ROADSTERS, and HACKS. The first are propagated in the racing studs of the most opulent characters, and appropriated entirely to the decision of sporting engagements upon the TURF; many of which, after having displayed their powers in this way, then become HUNTERS of the first class, and are frequently sold at three and four hundred guineas each. Carriage horses, with which the gay and fashionable are now whirled through the western streets of the metropolis with the most incredible velocity, were formerly considered the good, safe, substantial English hunter, and might forty years since have been purchased for thirty or five-and-thirty pounds, which was at that time about the current value: they are not now, however, from the constantly accumulating demand, and incessant destruction, to be procured in a state of youth and purity, at less than nearly three times that sum. Cart horses of great size, strength, and adequate powers, are principally furnished by the midland and northern counties, for the coal and corn trade, as well as the commercial purposes of the city and suburbs, where they command an incredible price: small and inferior sorts are bred in, and dispersed through, almost every other county in the kingdom. Roadsters and HACKS may be supposed to include that great infinity of all sizes, descriptions, and qualifications, with which every road, every common, and every pasture, seem so plentifully to abound.
If superior judgment and circumspection were ever truly necessary in the selection and purchase of a HORSE, they are become doubly so, when the object of pursuit is proportionally difficult of attainment. To direct the eye, to form the judgment, and to check the natural impetuosity of the young and inexperienced purchaser, some few remarks are indispensibly necessary to shield him from the rock of fascination, upon which so many have repentantly foundered. The mind of man should never be more itself, never more adequate to the task of cool deliberation and patient observation, than in the simple examination of a horse for sale. Deception in dealing is so truly systematic, and so truly honorable in the present age, that the mind cannot be too closely fortified for all events: whether the subject is to be sold by AUCTION, or by private contract, the property of a GENTLEMAN, or the offer of a dealer, the ground of self defence should be precisely the same.
It is the fixed and invariable rule with every DEALER, to affect, at first, a perfect indifference respecting the horse he wishes most to get rid of; and he always makes a point of never giving the unequivocal price of any horse till he has been seen out of the stable; during which time of shewing out, he, as well as his emissaries and attendants, are occasionally engaged in watching most attentively every trait of the intentional purchaser's countenance, anxious for a single sign of approbation, by which to regulate the magnitude of his demand; asking five, ten, fifteen, or twenty guineas more than he originally intended, in proportion as he finds the enquirer fascinated with his object of perfection, and disposed to purchase. Before the horse is brought out, it is in vain to entreat the ceremony of "figging" may be dispensed with; it is declared a custom of honor amongst the fraternity, and must be complied with.