Part 4

A New Hampshire horse dealer was “burned” by trading for a horse that would work anywhere and pull strongly except when he came to the foot of a hill; there he would balk and refuse to pull a pound. After he had kept the horse about a month a stranger came along and was “taken in.” The horse looked well and a trade was made for another horse and considerable “boot.” The buyer asked the dealer if the horse was a good worker and was told, “You bet! He will work any place you put him and when you come to the foot of a hill I tell you _he’s right there_!”

So the buyer discovered, and on complaining bitterly to the dealer was reminded of his honesty and candor in stating that at the foot of a hill he would always be right there. No doubt he paid more particular attention to the plausible talk of the dealer the next time he had occasion to “dicker” for a “hoss.”

An Honest “Hoss” Dealer.

There lived in Michigan a shrewd old horse dealer who gave folks due warning to beware when he donned his selling clothes. He used to say: “When I say, ‘Hoss’,—look out! I’m a-goin’ to trade. But when it’s ‘Horse,’—nawthin’ doin’! Ye’re perfectly safe.”

It is related that this character had a balky horse put on him by brother dealers in a neighboring town; but a few days later he got even, and with the same “hoss.” The former owners failed to recognize the beast, for in the interim it had been clipped, roached, docked and bishoped, besides receiving a few artistic spots of dye, and having had “tug marks” and “collar galls” manufactured by skilful shaving at the right places. In his new fix he looked a young, handsome, hard-working animal, but when the deal was made and the new owners hitched him up, they realized at once that both they and the horse were “stuck.”

A Sharper’s Smooth Sayings.

Elsewhere we have told of a balker that “was right there at the foot of a hill” or that would “stand without hitching.” The scalper and crafty dealer use many catchy phrases of this sort, and they fool the buyer unless he has sharp ears and quick comprehension.

A few additional catch sayings may prove of interest: A dealer having a horse with defective eyesight fitted him out with close blinkers and said to the buyer, “He doesn’t look very well.” Another said of a heavey horse, “If he ain’t windy you needn’t take him.”

Again, as to looks, and ability in harness, one said, “If he don’t suit you in harness you can take it off,” and again, “Single I bought him; double I broke him myself.”

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.

When a horse is to be measured stand him on a level floor and then see that the measuring is honestly done.

Secrets About Stallion Selling.

Palming Off a Grade Stallion on a Company.

The fact that several bogus pedigree registry associations are in existence, although they have not received the approval of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, makes it possible for dishonest stallion peddlers to obtain fraudulent registry certificates and, by using them, to fool the farmer. It would be well if no registry associations were allowed to engage in the interstate business of recording the pedigrees of breeding animals without first obtaining the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture.

A stallion whose sire was said by the owner to be “Middleton II” and out of a dam of part Morgan blood, was given a grade license certificate by the Department of Horse Breeding, of the College of Agriculture, of the University of Wisconsin. Some time later the horse changed hands and the buyer, who was an experienced organizer of stallion companies, had him recorded in a bogus stud book which issues a handsome, gold sealed registry certificate. On this the stallion was given an entirely new and wholly false pedigree, the sire being set forth as “Grove Revenue” and the dam as a well-bred Shire. On the strength of this attractive registry certificate of notable ancestry and the help of a few confederates, the stallion was sold to a company of hard-working farmers in one of the northern counties of the state for $1,800 in shares of $75 each. Some of the notes were discounted and the peddler disappeared, but now the matter is in the courts, as the Department of Horse Breeding discovered the swindle and put the company “wise.”

Another case has been discovered where a grade stallion was sold for a good price as pure-bred on the strength of a registry certificate from the stud book alluded to and “imported” according to the statement of the peddler. The owner in this case also learned too late that he had fallen a victim to sharpers, and will now seek redress in the courts.

Many similar cases could be cited and they serve to show the importance of studying the registry certificate furnished with the horse and making sure that it was issued by a stud book association approved by the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

Stud Books Approved by the Government.

The following registry associations have been approved by the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.:

American Association of Importers and Breeders of Belgian Draft Horses—J. D. Connor, Jr., Wabash, Ind., Secretary.

American Breeders’ Association of Jacks and Jennets—J. W. Jones, Columbia, Tenn., Secretary.

American Clydesdale Association—R. B. Ogilvie, Union Stock-yards, Chicago, Ill., Secretary.

American Hackney Horse Society—Gurney C. Gue, 308 West 97th St., New York, Secretary.

American Breeders’ and Importers’ Percheron Registry—John A. Forney, Plainfield, O., Secretary.

American Saddle Horse Breeders’ Association—I. B. Nall, Louisville, Ky., Secretary.

American Shetland Pony Club—Mortimer Levering, Lafayette, Ind., Secretary.

American Shire Horse Breeders’ Association—Chas. Burgess, Wenona, Ill., Secretary.

American Stud Book (Thoroughbreds)—W. H. Rowe, New York, Registrar.

American Trotting Register Co.—Frank E. Best, 355 Dearborn St., Chicago, Registrar.

American Suffolk Horse Association—Alexander Galbraith, De Kalb, Ill., Secretary.

Cleveland Bay Society of America—R. P. Stericker, West Orange, N. J., Secretary.

French Coach Horse Society of America—Duncan E. Willett, Oak Park, Ill., Secretary.

French Coach Registry Co.—Chas. C. Glenn, Columbus, O., Secretary.

German, Hanoverian and Oldenburg Coach Horse Breeders’ Association—J. Crouch, Lafayette, Ind., Secretary.

Morgan Horse Register—Joseph Battell, Middlebury, Vt., Editor.

National French Draft Horse Association—C. E. Stubbs, Fairfield, Iowa, Secretary.

Percheron Society of America—Geo. W. Stubblefield, Union Stock-yards, Chicago, Secretary.

Percheron Registry Co.—Chas. C. Glenn, Columbus, O., Secretary.

Stud Books Not Certified by the Government.

The following registry books are not at the date of this writing, August 4, 1909, certified by the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.:

American Horse Breeders’ Trotting Registry Association, 161 High St., Boston, Mass.

American Horse Registry Association—N. J. Harris, Des Moines, Ia., Secretary.

Arabian Horse Club of America—H. K. Bush-Brown, Newburgh, N. Y., Secretary.

American Iceland Pony Club—Geo. H. Simpson, Wheaton, Ill., Secretary.

American Percheron Registry Association—S. M. Heberling, La Grange, Ill., Secretary.

Coach and Draft Horse Association of America—Frederick Wightman, La Crosse, Wis.

Hartman Stock Farm Registry Record Co.—Adam Krumm, Columbus, O., Secretary.

International Consolidated Record Association—H. A. Jones, Penn Yan, N. Y., Secretary.

Morrisons’ International Roadster Register—Des Moines, Iowa.

The American Jack Register—W. L. De Clow, Cedar Rapids, Ia.

The National Standard Pacing and Trotting Horse Breeders’ Association—Thos. C. Parsons, 1023-5 Williamson Building, Cleveland, O., Registrar.

The Standard Jack and Jennet Registry of America—Kansas City, Mo.

Story of a Company Stallion Deal.

A few years ago a suit for the payment of fraudulently obtained notes for the purchase of a stallion was thrown out of court by Judge Carland, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for want of equity. A transcript of the evidence shows that there were the best of reasons for the Judge’s action.

It was alleged by the defendants, a number of farmers, that their names were secured in a book, by reason of representations made by an agent of the horse importer that they were signing a call for a meeting of farmers to consider the matter of buying a stallion for $5,000, and that when twenty names were secured a meeting would be called.

The names were secured and the meeting called, but instead of being asked to consider the matter of buying the horse the signers were informed that they had already agreed to buy the horse and jointly and severally pay $5,000 for him in four equal yearly payments, the first payment to be in two years, with six per cent. interest on all payments. In a proof of this it was shown that a brief contract in small type was printed at the top of the page of the book in which the names were signed which bound the signers as alleged. Upon this revelation the meeting became the opposite of one called to consider the purchase of the horse, as may be readily imagined.

The evidence shows that the defendants either did not know there was any printing matter on the page they signed, or if they did see it did not read it, and were told by the agent that it had nothing to do with the matter under consideration, or to be exact, one farmer testified: “I looked the thing over: I noticed this contract at the head of it and I asked what that fine print was there. He (the agent) said that it was an Iowa contract and did not cut any figure in this State.” Another explanation was testified to by another witness, quoted further on. Some witnesses testified that a broad rubber band or a turned leaf concealed the contract. The agent testified that he did not call any of the defendants’ attention to the contract, didn’t know if they saw it, but “supposed they did, for they had the book in their hands.”

All the defendants testified that they would not have signed the book if they had known the contract was there. Regarding the matter of what the meeting was to be called for, one farmer testified as follows, and he was corroborated by the other witnesses for the defense, and by at least one witness for the plaintiffs:

“Question: State what that conversation was, what he (the agent) said and what you said.”

“Answer: He told me he was trying to sell a horse and wanted me to sign a book. I asked the object of signing the book and he said it was just to call a meeting and get the men together and see if they would buy the horse. I asked him why he wanted our names on the book if he just wanted to call a meeting, why didn’t he call it without our names on the book? Well, he says, you fellows are strangers to me, your names are unfamiliar and I want a list of them so that I will know who to notify when I get ready to call a meeting, or else, he says, I may forget some of you who would like a share in that horse. Then I asked if there was anything binding about the book. I saw some printed matter and asked him what that was and he said there was nothing binding about it. I asked him what it was and what it was there for. He said it was just a memorandum showing that the meeting was called for, and the meeting would be to make a proposition to us to sell the horse and if we seen fit to buy the horse, well and good. If not, he said he would be out so much time and no harm done. That is the sum and substance of the conversation we had until I signed the book.”

It seems clear enough that the defendants believed they were simply signing a call for a meeting to consider the subject of forming a company to buy the horse; at any rate the case seemed so clear to Judge Carland that he did not seriously consider the question of compelling the farmers to give their notes as demanded by the plaintiffs, and threw the case out of court.

Horse Peddlers’ Confessions.

A peddler is a horse sharper who buys a cheap stallion of questionable quality, soundness, prepotency or breeding, from some large horse dealing firm, and then organizes a company of farmers for his purchase at a handsome profit. The tricks of such men are many and shady, and a few of them are here quoted for the benefit of farmers, who being thus forewarned, should in future be forearmed against the wiles of these glib-tongued confidence men.

The “Farm, Stock and Home” vouches for the truth of the following personal confession of a stallion peddler:

The Sale of Les Epinards.

I had noticed in a farm paper the advertisement of an auction sale of Percheron horses to be held at the farm of a breeder in an adjoining state. I slipped down there a few days before the date of sale, and picked out a nice looking, two-year-old stallion and on the day of sale bid $320 and the horse was sold to me. A pedigree was thrown in, but as it was written in the English language and the horse had a common, pronounceable name, I discarded it and christened him Les Epinards. At that time I didn’t know what Les Epinards meant, but remembered having seen it somewhere. I shipped him to a small town and started in to organize a company to buy him for $2,800. The pedigree proposition bothered me until I heard Billie was organizing a company in the next county. He very kindly lent me a pedigree that he had in his trunk which answered very well for Les Epinards. It was natural for me to say that the Epinards were celebrated breeders over in France who always named their horses after themselves. The name and the horse made a hit, and in six weeks’ time I had the signatures of ten farmers each for $280, four of them good, and the others just well enough known to the banker to cut down his discount 15 per cent. As it was a joint note, the banker realized in full and I came out of the sale in this fashion:

Price to company $2,800

EXPENSES

Paid for the horse $320 Freight 12 Bank discount 420 Board 60 Paid cappers 150 Groom 55 Feed 18 1,035 ---- ------ Profit $1,765

Now that’s what Tummy would call “financial acumen.” I bought a horse at an auction sale for $320, shipped him to another county in the same state and sold him for $2,800. It gradually dawned on me that there was more money in the selling than there was in the breeding and raising. Tummy was a wise boy, but I was beginning to learn a few things myself.

The same paper published the following, October 1, 1905:

The Sale of Transmigrator.

The easy money I made on the sale of Les Epinards as narrated in the last issue, emboldened me to try a new dodge. A fair was being held in Winnipeg. While there I fell in with a horse breeder who had a number of Percherons on his farm, some distance to the east of that town. At his invitation I visited the farm and was somewhat surprised at the prices he quoted for fine-looking stallions. One two-year-old of necessary size and shape he offered me for $300. It was not any part of my business to tell him who I was, and I am inclined to think he took me for a farmer from the states. In the horse peddling business the less people know about you the better and easier it is for the peddler, so I never corrected him. I bought the horse, imported him across the imaginary line dividing the two countries duty free by making affidavit he was to be used exclusively for breeding purposes and by satisfying the authorities with the pedigree furnished me by the Canadian that he was a pure-bred animal.

With the rich selected feed my groom knew how to mix, helped along with artistic grooming and care, Transmigrator—the name he was to be known by—waxed fat and sleek. I could truthfully say he was imported, but as he was a bit shy on prize winnings I could not harp much on that score. Blue ribbons were cheap, however, and when we decked him out with a supply of them, he looked as fit as the majority of horses I sold for certain importers. Inasmuch as his pedigree was written in English, and certified to by officials with easy names to pronounce, I resolved to give the company a bargain, and put his price at $2,500. I always did believe in being generous. I might just as easily have sold for $3,000, but I threw off $500 on account of the understandable pedigree.

The company which bought the horse came near going to pieces after I had secured the names of six farmers to the notes. A busybody in that community insisted on making me a cash offer of $1,000. Of course, there was no profit in that for me and I was perfectly right in refusing his offer. What’s the use of farmers being educated to the beauties of the company plan which benefits the bankers, the peddlers, the groom, and the cappers, if we are going to sell the horse direct for cash. It’s only the farmers that make the money by the cash or direct way of buying a stallion. I never met a peddler who was looking out for the farmers’ interests. They are in the business to improve the quality of horses and incidentally increase the size of their own bank rolls.

This reprobate even went so far as to actually buy a stallion from a breeder for $975, and I must confess he was a good judge, for he certainly got an excellent animal. My horse, however, had one advantage—he had a longer name and was imported. On two occasions I felt like quitting. Only four of the signers of the joint note could be trusted for a peanut, so the banker said, and he insisted on my getting two additional names acceptable to him. This was not an agreeable task, and I worked like a Trojan, persuading the members of the company that it was a more sensible thing to sign notes due in two years for $2,500 at only six per cent. interest rather than to pay $1,000 cash for a horse that possibly might die as soon as paid for. I will not repeat in cold print the arguments I used—they might be considered foolish by my readers. The fact remains, however, I did get six good names on that note and four fillers, making ten signers, who each agreed to pay me $250 for Transmigrator. They could have bought a better horse for $1,000 cash from breeders, within 100 miles. I made fair wages by the transaction, as may be seen from the following:

Price to company $2,500

EXPENSES

Cost of horse $300 Banker’s discount 375 Freight 37 Board 49 Feed 25 Paid cappers 160 946 ---- ------ Profit $1,554

Some Veterinary Secrets.

Secret of Preventing Navel and Joint Disease.

When a new-born foal speedily develops abscesses involving the navel and the joints of the extremities, the cause is an invasion of the navel by filth germs and this may easily be prevented. A mare foaling in cold weather should be provided with a clean, fresh bedded, disinfected, light, airy, whitewashed box stall in which to have her foal. In the summer season she may be allowed to foal on grass where filth germs are less liable to be found than in old, dark, dirty stables. But no matter where the foal is born, care must be taken to thoroughly disinfect the navel cord (umbilicus) as soon as it has been severed or tied. For this purpose a 1:500 solution of bichloride of mercury (corrosive sublimate) is usually recommended, but we advise the use of a much stronger solution to be prepared as follows: Dissolve ½ ounce of finely powdered corrosive sublimate in 1 pint of boiling water to which has been added 1 dram of dilute hydrochloric acid. When cold add ½ ounce of tincture of iron, as coloring matter; label the bottle “poison” and keep it out of the reach of children.

At the birth of a foal immediately wet the stump of the navel with this solution and repeat the application twice daily until the cord dries up, and falls off and no raw spot can be seen. The solution at the time of using may conveniently be held in a shallow wide-mouthed bottle into which the stump of the cord may be inserted and immersed. As soon as the cord has shrivelled up remove it, if it will come away readily. The new raw surface can easily be got at with the solution. Use of the solution will also tend to prevent leakage of urine from the navel.

It is best to avoid, wherever possible, tying the navel cord at birth. The natural way is for the cord to be broken at birth, either when the foal is dropped or by the mare rising, and so causing it to break by stretching it. When this happens the walls of the fetal urinary passage (urachus), the arteries and the vein of the umbilicus retract and close the opening; whereas these vessels are liable to remain open for entrance of germs if the cord has been ligated, or cut off and the ligature quickly removed, besides allowing the escape of urine by way of the pervious urachus.

Symptoms of Bad Teeth.