1. how to buy a young horse

Having been involved for a long time in horsemanship, I believe I am experienced with horses, and willing to design guidelines for the right treatment of horses also for the younger friends. Although also Simon - that Simon, who gave an iron horse to the Eleusian Temple in Athens and showed his deeds at the base of it - has written a treatise of the art of riding, I don't want to omit those of my experiences in which I agree with him. I think I will be more trustworthy for my friends, when also he, an experienced horseman, has the same opinions as I do. What he has omitted I will add.

At the beginning I want to write how to be cheated least when buying a horse. One should pay attention to the body of the uneducated foal: we cannot gain reliable knowledge of the soul of a horse before he is broken in. So one must look at the feet. As a house has no value and utility, when the upper parts are built beautiful, but do not stand on a firm ground, so a war-horse is useless, when everything is good and looks good, but the feet are weak and ugly. In this case all other advantages also cannot take effect. When examining the hind legs one should watch the hoof walls. Strong ones are always better than the thin. Also pay attention, whether the hoofs are - fore and hind - flat or steep. High hoofs keep the frog away from the ground, while flat hoofs, touch the ground equally with the weak and with the strong part of the hoof, exactly like people with flatfeet. Also by the sound you can recognize horses with good feet and hoofs. The hollow hoof sounds like a cymbal, that old music instrument of two metal bowls, which stroked together give a clear sound.

At the most important point, the horse hoof, I have started with the examination. Now we are proceeding upwards to the rest of the body. The bones above the hoof may not be as steep as a goats, because an angle like this would result in a stronger rebound - pushing the rider when moving. The legs would also be more likely to get inflamed at the sides. Nor should these bones be too low otherwise the fetlocks are likely to loose the hairs and run sore when the horse is ridden over clods or stones.

The bones of the shanks should be strong, since these are the pillars of the body; but not with thick veins or flesh. Because when they are with thick flesh, when the horse is ridden over hard ground, they become charged with blood and varicose; the legs will swell, and the skin falls away. But when this gets loose the pin often too gets loose and lames the horse.

Further I want to point out how to deal with the question regarding the height of the horse. If a foals legs immediately after birth are very long, one can certainly know it will grow very big. That's so because with all four-legged animals the legs are not growing that much, but in relation the rest of the body grows more to become well-proportioned.

Who examines the shape of a foal by these criteria, will according to my opinion most likely receive a talented, strong, beautiful and big horse. If some during growth would develop different, that is not a counter-evidence of this examination, because generally speaking more horses develop from mousy foals to beautiful than from beautiful to ugly ones.