TRICKS BY NORSE "COPERS."

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 19, Issue 99, 15 December 1908, Page 2

TRICKS BY NORSE "COPERS."

BY ONE OF THEM.

A very common trick when a "coper” has an old crock that can hardly move is to put him in a dark stable, with a sack over his head, and t« give him a sound leathering with a stick, hollowing at him at the same time. This is done just before the intending purchaser is expected, when the frlght<med creature, at the sound of his tormentor’s voice, takes the stick for granted, and capers along with the "grand action” set forth in the advertisement.

Sometimes a coper, assuring a purchaser that the horse doesn't require a whip, takes off his hat, and rattles his stick inside it. Away goes the poor nag, with ears and tail cocked, as though he was first cousin to a Derby winner !

This is how it is done. For some days the coper has driven the horse about, playing a tune with his hat? and stick, accompanying his tunes with a good hiding each time, and so, of course, when the poor beast hears the hat, he expects the stick, and puts on the pace until tho buyer is taken in. ’ Another very old game is to pass off a bad-tempered kicker and fighter as an unbroken colt. You can always tell a newly-imported Russian ponv by his shoes, which are quite different from ours, and so we get a set and put them on, and there you are !

Perhaps you’ve seen the hollow in an old horse’s temples ? Well, we put a thin pipe through a little hole and blow them out, tying up the orifice with a bit of silk. In this way we take five years off his age, and put ' five pounds on his price ! Sometimes we get hold of a tidy horse' that runs close, and cuts itself with its shoes, and which would fetch a decent price if it wasn’t for this fault. And here comes in the coper’s art again.

We get a bit of blister, and put it high up between the horse’s thighs, or run a bit o’ red-hot tobaccopipe into the skin. The pain caused by these tricks causes him to run with his legs wide apart, and so he is sold, as well as his purchaser.— "Spare Moments."