Inasmuch as we have had a long experience of cavalry, and
							consequently claim familiarity with the art of horsemanship, we wish to
							explain to our younger friends what we believe to be the correct method
							of dealing with horses. True there is already a treatise on horsemanship
							by Simon, A considerable fragment of
								this work survives in a MS. in Emmanuel College, Cambridge . The most recent
								editions are those of Oder 
								and Ruhl. The cavalry commander named Simon
								referred to in Aristophanes’ Knights 242, is just a
								member of the chorus, but the name probably recalls the
								author. who also dedicated the bronze horse in the Eleusinium
							at Athens and recorded his
							own feats in relief on the pedestal. Nevertheless, we shall not erase
							from our work the conclusions that happen to coincide with his, but
							shall offer them to our friends with far greater pleasure, in the belief
							that they are more worthy of acceptance because so expert a horseman
							held the same opinions as we ourselves: moreover, we shall try to
							explain all the points that he has omitted. First we will give directions how best to
						avoid being cheated in buying a horse. For judging an unbroken colt, the only
						criterion, obviously, is the body, for no clear signs of temper are to be
						detected in an animal that has not yet had a man on his back. In examining his body, we say you must first
						look at his feet. For, just as a house is bound to be worthless less if the
						foundations are unsound, however well the upper parts may look, so a
						war-horse will be quite useless, even though all his other points are good,
						if he has bad feet; for in that case he will be unable to use any of his
						good points.