Making a Horse Act Mean.

When a “gyp” dealer learns that a farmer is having difficulty in training a high-strung young horse, he tries to buy him at a discount, and unless closely watched will try to make the horse act mean when examined. He asks the owner to harness or ride the horse, and diverting his attention for a moment, applies an irritating substance to the heels, or some other part of the animal, causing him to kick, plunge and attempt to run away. He calls his secret dope “dog water,” “hop-up,” “soup” or “fog,” and its effect is intended so to disgust the horse owner that he will be glad to sell the fractious beast at a bargain.

Often, should a buyer visit a scalper’s stable in the city, he will be shown a fine-looking horse and attractive harness and wagon. The price asked for the horse and outfit is a low one, and the stranger jumps at the chance to acquire the property; but just as the horse is being hitched up, he begins to kick or behave badly under the influence of a dose of “soup.” The intending buyer immediately suffers from “cold feet,” and is readily induced to take an inferior horse. The fine horse and outfit are thus used times without number to attract buyers and assist in the sale of unattractive, cheap horses at profitable prices.

Blowing Air Under the Skin.

When the muscles of the shoulder have wasted away, constituting the condition termed “sweeny,” air sometimes is blown under the skin to give the part a plump condition. This trick is easily detected, for when the hand is passed over the inflated part it crackles (crepitates) showing the presence of air under the skin (emphysema). The same trick is practised to make an old horse appear younger than he really is, the hollow’s over the eyes being blown up by means of a hollow needle, quill or straw passed through the skin. For low hip and atrophy of the shoulder muscles we have also known tricksters to inject a two per cent solution of phenol under the skin and then thoroughly massage the part.

Stopping a Switcher.

Apart from operating upon the muscles of the tail to prevent switching, which often is a bad vice in mares, dealers resort to the following trick: The tail is tied up over the horse’s back as tightly as possible and left in that position over night. It becomes so numbed by this treatment that the horse is unable to use it for half a day or so after it is let down.

The switching habit is also mechanically prevented, when the mare is hitched, by fastening a strand of the hair or string from each side of the tail to a part of the breeching of harness.

Tail switching is less likely to be noticed by the buyer if the tail is tied up or braided. Therefore, it is well to let the tail down for this and other reasons before deciding to buy the horse.

The Turpentine and Gasoline Tricks.

Temporarily to lessen or remedy the lameness of a footsore horse, turpentine heated to the boiling point is poured into the sole of the foot. It can be held there for five minutes by binding a bandage around the foot so that the turpentine cannot run down over the hoof-head. The buyer may readily detect this trick, as the odor of turpentine gives it away when the hoof is examined.

It also is alleged that the following treatment is given for muscle soreness, caused by use over hard stones: The night before he wishes to sell the horse affected in this way, the “gyp” dealer will pour gasoline over the withers, and let it flow down both shoulders and forearms. The gasoline contracts the capillaries and larger blood vessels and diminishes the blood pressure and nerve sensibility, thus allowing a nearly natural movement of the muscles. Of course as soon as the effect of the gasoline passes away the soreness will return. If gasoline were rubbed on the muscles it would probably result in a blister.

Gingering a Show Horse.

As a preparation for the show ring contest, or before exhibiting a horse to a prospective buyer, it is almost the general practise to insert ginger root in the animal’s rectum that the irritation produced thereby may cause it to carry a high tail and show spirit and action.

While this objectionable practise obtains most as regards coach and carriage horses, it is also followed by exhibitors and sellers of draft stallions and mares, and of recent years has been practised extensively. Indeed the trick is becoming far too common, and we have even seen it boldly and flagrantly practised in the judging ring to the disgust of all decent and fair-minded spectators. Possibly there may be some excuse for the practise as a means of setting a show or sale horse “on edge,” but if allowed at all it should at least be done in private and be absolutely prohibited as a public act in the show ring. We sincerely trust that managers of horse shows will take this view of the matter; and officers of the humane societies should see to it that horses are not excessively tortured in this way. While the grooms of some horse exhibitors use ginger in the judging ring, others pay some regard to the rules of decency by backing the horses into their stalls before showing so that the trick may be practised unnoticed by the visitors who throng the aisles of the horse barns. We have heard of such a plan being followed when preparing the entire string of coach horses of one owner for the evening exhibit at a great horse show.

Unnerving and Cocaining.

Chronic lameness is done away with by skilful obliteration of the large nerves which supply the affected parts with sensation. The operation is termed nerving or unnerving in common parlance and, properly, as neurectomy. It consists in cutting down upon the nerve and then removing a portion so that its function is destroyed so far as the portion below the seat of operation is concerned. Unnerving is most often done to hide the lameness caused by navicular disease which is incurable: it may also be practised on account of ringbone, side-bone, founder or other unsoundness of the foot. After unnerving the horse does not evince pain when the parts below the seat of the operation are pinched or pricked. The operation merely does away with pain and lameness. It is in no way a cure.

Cocaine or eucaine solution injected by means of a hypodermic syringe upon the nerves at the points where neurectomy would be performed will temporarily have an effect like that of the operation. Just after the injection a swollen or puffed place may be discovered at the point where the hypodermic needle was inserted, and local soreness may be present after the effects of the drug have subsided.

Keep an Eye on the Sign-Board.

Dr. Hawley advises that when buying horses at auction one should watch the sign-board, as it may be suddenly shifted from “serviceably sound” to “wind and work.” In such a case a horse slightly lame may be purchased with no chance of rejection.

Secret of Hiding a Spavin.

It is an old “gyp” trick to beat one hock-joint with a stick so that it will swell and acquire the same size as the hock unsound from spavin. Caustic solutions injected under the skin at the seat of spavin also smooth the appearance of the joint.

If spavin is suspected, test for it by picking up the hind foot and holding it toward the stifle for two or three minutes so as to tightly shut the hock-joint. Then drop the foot and instantly have the horse trotted. If spavin, apparent or hidden (occult), is present the horse will hop off on three legs, or go much lamer than before.

Artificially Induced Knee Action.

True knee action is an inborn trait in certain horses, such as those of the English hackney breed, and some families of American trotters; but in many high-stepping horses, sold on the market, such action is unnatural, and has been acquired. The true knee actor flexes his hocks about as freely as he does his knees. This is the test: Watch a fashionable, high-going coacher, and if the action is not well balanced, and if the hind legs are imperfectly flexed, and seem to have difficulty in “keeping up with the procession,” depend upon it that the horse has been trained to go as he does and easily may forget his lessons on leaving school.

The “gyp” trick is to wet the hoof heads with turpentine, which sets up intense irritation and induces knee action. This is readily discovered by remembering to run the hands over the coronets when examining the horse, then noting if they smell of any drug.

The horse trainer, on the other hand, develops high knee action by putting on heavy shoes, the toes being left long; by trotting and galloping the horse in plowed land, deep snow, or a deep bed of straw. He also frequently taps the legs back of the knees with a whip or light stick as the horse takes daily walking exercise. Soon the animal learns the trick of high stepping, and thus is ready to match with one of like kind and gait, for sale at a high figure to some rich man in the city.

A coach horse with extraordinary high knee action was sold by a dealer to a city man for $400. In a few days the buyer returned the horse saying, “Sell him over again; you put him on me, now stick some one else with him.” This horse had stringhalt in both fore legs which caused him to go high.

In buying a coach or hackney stallion or mare for breeding purposes, see to it that the high action is natural and not acquired or due to chorea, else the tendency to step high will not be transmitted to the progeny.

The Artificial Tail Trick.

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.”

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.”