"A Rocky Mountain Recipe"

When the wily Steamboat horseman
Wants to “do” a tourist, he
“Gets a move on” in accordance
With this simple recipe:
Take a horse of fifteen winters;
File his teeth and roach his mane;
Dose him with condition powders;
Feed him chop or boiled grain.
Give his coat an oily lustre
(This is done with linseed meal!)
Use the currycomb and brush with
Ardor that will make him squeal.
Should he then, in your opinion,
Be a little short of “slick,”
Give him air of roundness wanting
With a course of arsenic!
Follow closely these instructions—
Also, then, (if you are bold)
Underneath his tail a bur put—
And you have a four-year-old.
C. F. Davis
Steamboat Pilot,
August 18, 1897, page 4