When We Talk Horse
reprinted from Farm and Fireside, 1923
Horsefolk have a vocabulary all their own. When we buy a horse it is worth while to know just what each term means. Here is a little dictionary of commonly used expressions that I have compiled.
1. General Expressions:
- Chancy – a horse likely to be a good investment.
- Little Green – does not work well in harness or under saddle.
- Breedy – shows evidence of good breeding.
- Tucked up gaunt, had a long sleep – the horse does not show a full well-rounded abdomen.
- Just over his sickness – means he does not look bright and attractive.
- Runs with a cold – a slight defect in breathing.
- Bushing – getting a reduction in price due to misrepresentation in any way when purchased.
- Sold at halter – sold as he stands.
- Legs go – no recourse due to blemishes, defects, or unsoundness.
- Work only – nothing else guaranteed.
- Wind and work – means wind good and will work; nothing more guaranteed.
- Hitch – nothing else but working in harness guaranteed.
- Good age – from ten to fifteen years old.
- Smooth mouth – may be above ten years old
- Full mouth – six years of age.
- Just a baby – either four or five years old.
- Parrot mouth – upper teeth project on the lower.
- Under shot – the opposite of parrot mouth.
- A grade – not purebred.
- Half-breed – one parent a purebred.
- Cold-blooded – a harness horse with a strain of draft-horse blood.
2. Concerning Unsoundnesses and Blemishes:
- Hair off the hoof – has a ringbone or side bone.
- A little rough on the coronet – same as above
- A little rough behind – the horse has a spavin.
- A jack – same as next above
- A roarer – badly off in the breathing.
- Windy, wind-broken, whistler – horse not sound of wind or breathing.
- A bull – a horse that makes a grunting sound when one makes a pass as if to strike it along the ribs over the lungs.
- Feather in eye, blue eye, speck in eye, cloudy eye and smoky eye – all mean some unsoundness of the eye, partial or complete; purchaser should investigate.
3. Concerning Defects:
- Tied in the knees, knock-kneed – front knees closer together than usual, also called bench-legged.
- Over in the knees, a little careless in knees, buck-kneed – the knees are bent forward more than normal.
- Calf-kneed – the opposite of over in the knees.
- Toe-wide, spleg-footed, Charlie Chaplin or base narrow – stands with heels close together and toes pointing outward.
- Hog-backed, roached back – the back makes an inward curve.
- Sway-backed – low in the back.
- Ewe-necked – low in front of withers.
- Herring gutted, wasp-waisted, needs a corset – small around the body through the flanks.
- Flat-ribbed, sunfish – thin of body and flat-sided, not well-rounded.
4. Stable Tricks and Vices:
- Cribber, crib-biter, wind-sucker – takes hold of manger or other objects and pulls back making a short grunt.
- Weaver – weaves from side to side of stall.
- Bobby, a bobber – walks with a peculiar bobbing up and down.