Part 3

Where a horse is bought without careful examination of the tail, it may transpire when too late for redress that the switching appendage has been joined on. We remember examining a fine, thoroughbred running horse that was to be used for saddle purposes. Everything passed scrutiny until we came to the tail, which was that of some other horse, nicely held in place by clamps. When it was removed it was found that the horse under examination possessed a mere vestigial stump of a tail—a regular shaving brush affair—and on that account the deal, like the tail, was all off.

Draft and work horses are often offered with the tail braided and tied up. Where this is the case, the intending buyer should let the tail down and then he may find that a big foreign switch has been braided in with the scant supply of natural hair.

The critical examination of the tail will also save the prospective purchaser from acquiring an animal afflicted with pigment tumors (see page 48), or one that is about to lose a portion of the tail by gangrene, due to keeping a cord too tightly and too long around the part when tied up in muddy weather, or while exposed for sale.

Keeping a Horse “In the Air.”

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.

Some dealers temporarily make a horse desist from cribbing by driving hard wood wedges between his front incisor teeth. Another old plan is to saw between the teeth. The soreness makes it painful for the horse to practise the habit of cribbing. Such a horse may be returned to the commission man, no matter how much time has elapsed since the purchase. The trick is difficult to discover unless the horse has cribbed long enough to render the appearance of the teeth suspicious. In the confirmed cribber the teeth are worn off or levelled and usually have lost the marks.

Another way of stopping a horse from cribbing is to blindfold the animal, place a block of wood on the incisor teeth and strike it with a mallet. By this cruel means the parts are made so sore that the horse temporarily stops catching hold of the manger to crib and suck wind.

The buyer should always, when possible, see the horse in the stall prior to the show out. If he remembers this and moves quick enough he may see the horse wearing a strap buckled around his neck just back of the ears. Such a horse is a cribber and wind-sucker and the strap is put on to prevent the latter vice.

Making an Artificial Star.

It sometimes happens or is claimed to have happened that a pure-bred foal, registered when young in the stud book, is set down as having a star in its forehead but which on attaining maturity shows no such mark. Sometimes in matching horses a difficulty is experienced when a perfect mate is found with the exception that a star is lacking.

In such cases the horseman is occasionally more or less successful in producing an artificial star. One plan suggested is to cut a boiling hot potato in two and instantly apply the cut surface to the skin of the forehead. The scalding removes the hair and it comes in white, but a careful examination of such an artificial scar often will disclose a small pink, hairless spot in the center of the mark. The same tell-tale spot is seen where the artificial star has been produced by cauterizing with a red-hot iron or scalding with boiling water. The discovery of an artificial star on the forehead of a stallion or mare sold as pure-bred and registered is sufficient reason for making a careful investigation as to the identity of the animal and the integrity of the seller.

An old book gives the following plan of making an artificial star: Take a piece of coarse tow-linen, the size of the wished-for star. Spread on it warm pitch, and apply it to the shaved spot; leave it on for two or three days, then wash with a smart water, or elixir of vitriol, two or three times a day until well. When the hair grows it will be white.

Black Spots on a White Horse.

An old veterinary book says: Take of powdered quicklime half a pound, and litharge four ounces. Beat well the litharge with the lime. The above is to be put into a vessel and a sharp lye is to be poured over it. This is the coloring matter which must be applied to such parts of the animal as you wish to have dyed black.

Broken Crest or Wrong Lying Mane.

In certain gross, coarse-necked, heavy-maned, plethoric draft stallions advancing in age it is not uncommon to find the crest broken over under the weight of the mane. Attempts are sometimes made by the owner or seller to offset this objectionable condition by braiding the mane and causing it to lie upon the side of the neck opposite the break by weighting with flat strips of lead attached to the hair. If the crest breaks over to either side the mane may be roached. Weights may also be used in similar fashion to shed the mane of one horse of a pair so that it will lie on the proper side of the neck to make the team well matched and dressed. A broken crest is objectionable in a stallion as it indicates coarseness and grossness, a tendency to which is likely to be transmitted. The term broken crest is sometimes applied in the market to a horse affected with fistulous withers or scarred therefrom.

Concealing Discharging Sinuses.

It is not uncommon for a horse to have a fistula (opening or sinus) of a salivary duct. Where this is so there will be a discharge of saliva which appears as a limpid, transparent liquid oozing out or flowing in a stream. It is most profuse when the animal is eating and at that time may escape in jets.

Such fistulæ commonly involve Stenon’s duct and are located on the side of the face or jaw. They are difficult to remedy, and the dealer resorts to the use of strong astringents and then plugs the openings tightly with cotton to temporarily prevent escape of saliva until a sale has been effected.

A fistula connecting with the root of a diseased molar and discharging pus through a sinus (pipe) the orifice of which is under the lower jaw, may be plugged in similar fashion, to be discovered later by the chagrined buyer. It also is possible temporarily to prevent escape of pus from small chronic fistulæ or those resulting from poll-evil, fistulous withers or trephining of the bones of the face.

The Galloping Past Dodge.

Some horses roar loudly when going fast in harness, but are instantly quiet when action ceases. To prevent the detection of this unsoundness the seller, unless prevented from doing so by an experienced buyer, gallops the horse past the latter and, by tugging upon the lines, makes it appear that the animal is trying to run away or is difficult to control. The team is pulled up some distance away and by the time the buyer gets there the horse has resumed normal breathing.

The better way to test the horse’s wind is to lock the rear wheels of a wagon by thrusting a strong stick between the spokes from one wheel to the other; then make the horses pull the wagon at a run and be at their heads the moment they stop. Such horses may not be true roarers but mechanical chokers with thick, bull necks or enlarged throat glands. These are practically sound and only roar when pulling a heavy load up hill or on getting the chin down close to the chest.

Keeping a Horse on Edge.

A horseman of the old school writes: “When dealers have had a horse some time in their stables, they exercise him with a whip two or three times a day, so that when a ‘chapman’ goes to look at him, they have only to stir their hand with the whip in it. Under such conditions it is hard to say whether the horse, fearful of a drubbing, is lame or not, and a good judge may be deceived.”

In another place he says: “A horse that goes with his fore feet low is very apt to stumble and there are some that go so near the ground that they stumble most on even road, and the dealers, to remedy this, put heavy shoes on their feet, for the heavier a horse’s shoes are, the higher he will lift his feet.”

“An Eye for An Eye.”

The buyer should have a keen look out for the eye of the horse; otherwise he may easily make sad mistakes in the market.

The pupil of the eye should contract when the horse comes out into the light. If it does not, the eye is blind, or at least unsound. Such eyes have an unnatural appearance which should attract the attention of the alert examiner, but he will be very apt to overlook the blindness if the horse is led out into the bright sunshine. Where a horse has recently become blind from periodic ophthalmia (moon blindness), he may still be able to detect a bright light, and so when exposed to sunshine, may throw up his head and look directly at the sun. This act makes the examiner liable to consider the eyes sound.

Periodic ophthalmia, as suggested by the term, comes on at intervals, but eventually after repeated attacks ends in blindness of one or both eyes.

A horse that has had a few attacks, causing a slight opacity of the cornea (scum), is a favorite with the scalper, as he can be bought cheap, treated for the temporary clearing up of the eyes, and sold at a profit to an unwary buyer. The disease is incurable, and its presence is to be suspected when the eyebrow appears triangular and wrinkled, and the eye looks smaller than its mate, or a healthy eye, and is retracted into the orbit.

Unscrupulous buyers sometimes render a horse temporarily blind by chewing whole flaxseed to a pulp and smearing it in the eye. By washing a cloudy, sticky-looking eyeball, this trick is readily discovered.

A horse may also be rendered temporarily blind by the administration of certain drugs.

The clearing-up process of treating a blue-eyed or moon-blind horse also is effected by skilful use of such drugs as atropia, belladonna, eserine, nitrate of mercury ointment, bloodroot, alum, calomel, etc. Their effect is transitory, and the horse soon has an unmistakable attack of ophthalmia.

Examine the Ears.

It will be well to “put a flea in the ear” of the man who contemplates buying a horse and who may not know that the ear will bear investigation. If the animal will not submit to inspection, look out! The horse that will not allow one to handle his ears, or fights when the attempt is made, may be a terror to shoe, and therefore has had the “twitch” put on his ear many a time in the blacksmith’s shop; or he may have had poll-evil, some injury to the ear, or head, or have a disease present which makes the ear sore or sensitive. A horse so affected is difficult to handle, as he fights when the halter or bridle is put on.

Sometimes a fine silken thread may be found running under the forelock from ear to ear to prevent them from lopping over.

Or there may be a leaden bullet suspended by a silk thread in the hollow of the ear to prevent its constant motion. Sometimes the motion indicates impaired sight or nervousness, whereas the lack of it may indicate deafness.

Then, too, we sometimes find at the base of the ear a chronic, almost incurable fistulous opening and tract connecting with the bursa mucosa, constantly discharging a substance like liquid vaseline, which daubs and mats the hair, giving the part an untidy, filthy appearance.

Besides this, temporarily stitched and glued split ears, chronic eczema and warts may be looked for and avoided. It is more difficult to find ear ticks, such as are met with in southwestern states, but when present they cause great irritation, and may make a horse fractious.

Bishoping, an Old Trick.

John C. Knowlson,[1] an old farrier, writing in 1850, says: “Horse dealers have a trick of knocking out the nook teeth at three years and a half, to make a horse appear five years old when only four; but they cannot raise the tusks. At six years old the nook teeth are a little hollow, and at seven there is a black mark, like the end of a ripe bean. Afterwards you will observe the flesh shrink from the teeth, which grow long and yellow. Horse dealers have also a method which they call _Bishoping a horse’s mouth_; that is, filing the tusks shorter, rounding them at the ends, taking a little out of the nook teeth, so as to make them rather hollow, and then burning them with a hot iron. I was hired by Anthony Johnson, of Wincolmlee, Hull, as farrier to a number of horses that were going to the city of Moscow, in Russia, for sale, and we had a little gray horse, called Peatum, that was seventeen years old, the mouth of which I bishoped, and he passed for six years old, and was the first horse sold, and for £500 English money! I only mention this as a caution to horse buyers.”

[1] See note on page 47, relating to “An old operation for spavin.”

How Bishoping is Done.

Bishoping is dental forgery, false marks being made on the incisor teeth to make an old horse appear young. It is a dishonest practise and not to be countenanced for a moment by a reputable horseman. The modus operandi of the business is told as follows in a well-known book on “Animal Dentistry”: “Renewal of the cups (bishoping) is the most important of the artificial attempts to make horses appear younger, and if performed intelligently upon horses that are not too old, together with the shortening and polishing of the crowns of the superior incisors, may deceive even the vaunted expert. The operation consists of cutting large cups in the inferior corners, smaller ones in the laterals and mere dots in the centrals and then staining them with silver nitrate. The cupping process is performed with an engraver’s gouge, and a revolving hand drill, or by the modern ingenious implement in vogue in the Chicago market, consisting of the foot engine used by human dentists, equipped with a circular cutting wheel, by which cups of perfectly normal shape and size can be made. The horse is backed into a single stall and secured in a dental halter. An assistant works the dental engine with the foot. The operator holding the hand piece of the flexible shaft in the right hand and the jaw in the other, cuts first a large elliptical cup, with sharp commissures, in the table of the corner incisors, then smaller ones in the laterals and small dots in the centrals. As the wheel revolves with great velocity, the cupping is the work of but a moment, if the horse stands complacently. When the corner tooth has but a small table it is enlarged by filling and the cup is cut across its entire length. The cup in the corners is frequently made with a rounded belly internally and a sharp commissure externally to give a more confusing if not a more natural appearance. When the cupping process is complete, the arcade is dried and kept free from saliva by wrapping the jaw behind the teeth with a cloth or towel. The cups are then stained by applying a saturated solution of silver nitrate with a stick and then drying it immediately by plunging the head of a burning match into it. The drying process immediately blackens the cavity. If the stain flows over the table of the tooth it is filed off.

Shortening, polishing, cupping and staining the incisor teeth of a nine or ten-year-old horse may be so cleverly performed that the most circumspect study of the mouth may fail to detect the alteration. In these cases the cupping is limited to the removal of the crusta petrosa within the infundibula, thus leaving the cup with a perfect enamel boundary. At that age the other retrogressive changes are not pronounced, and afford but little evidence to guide the diagnostician. When horses are past the age of twelve years the results of these operations are easily detected by the interrupted contact of the incisor arcades (rows of teeth) and especially by the angle of inclination, which is never altered by any natural process and which cannot be artificially changed. The shape of the tables and the absence of enamel around the cup will also lead readily to detection of the fraudulent attempts to make very old horses appear younger.”

Miscellaneous Secrets.

The Widow Trick.

Some years since it was common to find cunningly worded horse-sale advertisements in the daily newspapers, offering seemingly valuable animals at sacrifice prices. In some of these advertisements it was stated that a widow about to leave for Europe, where she hoped to be able to assuage the grief of her recent bereavement, would sell her favorite carriage horse, provided she could be assured of a good home and kind treatment for the highly esteemed animal. In reality the widow was a myth and the valuable horse a good looking, but worthless “robber.”

The scheme was craftily carried out, and many a man from the country fell a dupe to the wiles of the “widow” and her confederates. On going to the address mentioned in the advertisement, the prospective buyer would find a large stable in the rear of a fine old-fashioned mansion on one of the outlying boulevards or avenues. Here in charge of a glib-tongued coachman, usually a colored man, would be found several finely groomed horses standing knee deep in the finest of wheat straw bedding and surrounded by every appointment of a swell private stable. Opening negotiations with the groom, the buyer would hear one of the most plausible and pleasing tales imaginable elaborative of a similar, condensed story told in the glowing advertisement that had induced the visit. The filly or gelding would be described as bred in the purple, by Allerton, out of Kentucky Queen, she by a Pilot Jr., or some such combination of standard blood, possessed of great speed, having done halves in 1.08, a final quarter in 34 seconds, and the half “would have been as good as 1.06¼ had the track ‘near the pole’ not been heavy from a recent rain.” When the purchaser had become interested, but not sufficiently so to agree to a somewhat steep price, the “widow” dressed in deepest mourning and heavily veiled would opportunely appear upon the scene, do the weeping act and manage matters so adroitly that soon a bargain would be struck at a handsome figure.

Sometimes a “Colonel” or a “General” or a “Judge” would take the place of the “widow,” the man posing as that character being suitably dressed for the part, commanding in appearance, and so plausible and polished in address as to disarm all suspicion. During the preliminary negotiations between the groom and the buyer, the “General” would be conveniently stationed in the hay-loft overhead and would be summoned by electric bell when wanted, the “sucker” meanwhile being taken into the alley to see the horse go through his paces.

Needless to say that the buyer on getting the horse home and trying him out quickly rued his bargain, and equally unnecessary to say that when he went back to the swell stable for redress he found the place abandoned and was wholly unable to locate the men who had perpetrated the swindle.

This method of fleecing the unwary buyer is still in vogue but far less common than was the case before the advent of the automobile. Still it will be well to take glowing horse-sale advertisements with a large grain of salt, and better still to purchase a horse through some reliable commission man or dealer.

Landing a Sucker.

Dr. H. W. Hawley, an experienced veterinary horse buyer at the Chicago Stock Yards, says in the June, 1903, number of the Chicago Veterinary College “Quarterly Bulletin,” that most of the tricks of the horse dealing trade, though not all of them, are performed by scalpers. It takes only a few glances or questions for the sharper to know just the sort of horse the city buyer is looking for, and the scalper, with the aid of his colleagues, proceeds to “land a sucker.”

The gentlemanly scalper, with a disinterested manner, informs the buyer that he saw a lovely horse in a certain barn, the color being mentioned, but not being a horseman he knows nothing as to the soundness of the animal, nor as to the price. Word is sent along the line, and everything is ready. The horse is led out and just suits; is sound and all right, but the sum asked is $25 to $75 more than the market price. Perhaps the unsuspecting buyer will offer $10 or $15 more than the auction price, but he is allowed to go away with a polite, “Thank you, for the offer.”

Another disinterested party whispers in the buyer’s ear that the horse will be sold at auction. Sure enough, the animal is led to the auction stables, and care is taken that the buyer sees it passing.

The auctioneer and ringman are posted, and they wait for the sucker. The horseman starts the animal at pretty near his value. The bidding is rapid. The sucker gets in, and under excitement bids two or three times. Perhaps one of the regular eastern shippers bids once, but as a rule, the sucker, the auctioneer, and the scalper are the only bidders. The latter can usually tell when the victim has made his last bid, and the horse is knocked down to him at a good profit, which is divided between those concerned.

Sometimes the auctioneer is fooled by the sucker refusing to bid again. In such a case the scalper kicks out of his last bid and the horse is sold to the sucker at his previous bid.

A Horse That Was Right There.