Henry Herbert Knibbs

“ I wondered what the old man was up to, till I saw a young fellow with him—one of them kind that dresses horsy and tries to make himself believe that he has a right to be wearing them kind of clothes. As I brought the gelding out, I heard the old man telling the young fellow that the gelding could jump anything up to six feet, and that anybody who knew his business could handle him. ‘He’s got plenty of life,’ says the old man, ‘but that’s what you want in a jumper. Go ahead, Maurice.’
Well, sir, that horse took the first jump as square and clean as any horse I ever sat on. ”

“ He knew the horse was bad, but also he knew I would be knowing it meself. They say there is some good comes out of everything. I don’t know. But maybe my getting broke up saved that young fellow from getting killed complete. If so, I am glad. But I paid a terrible price for saving him, sir. Look at me hands! Sometimes I look at them and wonder if they belong to some old man with the palsy. And I am not an old man, sir. Ah, well, ’tis all in the way of our business. I’ll always be with the horses. ’Tis in me blood. I was born and raised to it, in Ireland, and me father before me. ”

“ Now, there are some dealers who will buy a horse and get fooled on him, and, finding it out, they will take their medicine. They are the kind that will try to get rid of the horse to some other dealer who is supposed to know his business. And there be dealers who would sell anything with a mane and tail to it, to anybody. And the man I speak of was that kind. And that is the great trouble with the horse business. Buying a bad one or a lame one discourages them as would spend their money, and you know, sir, ’tis the money of the amateur horseman that keeps the game going. ”

“ Perhaps, because I meant it, Maurice felt inclined to talk intimately of his past or a portion of it.
“I was not always a groom,” he reiterated. “One time I had a little money put by and some good clothes.” He smiled wistfully. “I’ll not tell you about Ireland and the steeplechases and flat races I rode when I was a lad. And I was no more than a young man when I came to America. New York it was, where I worked for a gentleman, at his country place, a millionaire, sir, but that did not hinder him from being a fine horseman. ”

“ And up toward the head of the valley a road crosses the bridle trail diagonally, a modern road, hard-surfaced and commercial. It is a highway for mammoth steel gravel trucks that, empty and loaded, go and come day and night. Their right of way is never disputed or ignored. What do they care about mere automobiles or even more insignificant horses and riders? These trucks are the clamoring juggernauts of civilization.
Shortly before we came within sight of this hazardous crossing, both the mare and I were aware of the heavy boom and roar of a motor. The mare stopped abruptly. ”

“ In every stable you will find, maybe, one or two horses that it would be best to shoot before they kill some one. The man I am telling you about had one—a big chestnut hunter, with a blaze and one white foot. ”