(146 ANNUAL. REPORT OF TKE Off. Doc. 



or 32 other heavy riding horses, . . . . / had side boues 



Of 133 light riding horses, 8 had side bones 



Of 140 riding horses of all sizes, 3 had side bones 



Of 200 militarj' horses, 1 had side bones 



Of 40 oflHcers horses, 3 had side boues 



1251 144 



Of 813 stallions examined by the Austrian commission, 80 were re- 

 jected on account of side bones as follows : 



358 draft horses, 77 had side bones 



270 light horses, 3 had side bones 



185 ponies, had side bones 



813 80 



In answers to my circular letter, two correspondents would, and 

 eight would not, reject horses afiflicted with side bones. The Austra- 

 lian commission has observed the transmission of sidebones from sire 

 to sons and from son to grandsons. In one case they examined twelve 

 stallions from one sire and eleven of them were condemned for this 

 defect. One of the best arguments in favor of the transmission of 

 sidebones is the fact that in some whole families of heavy draft horses 

 none are found. 



When Veterinary Inspection was adopted by the Royal Shire 

 Horse Society it was found that 33 per cent, of the show horses had 

 sidebones. They were found more common in the coarse Shire type 

 than in the cleaner-boned Clydesdale. 



There seems to be the greatest diversity of opinion among veter- 

 inarians in reference to sidebones. Some, among them Dr. George H. 

 Barnes, Took upon them as very trivial defects and from observations 

 made for many years on draft horses, especially, believes that a horse 

 is but very slightly more liable to go lame with sidebones than with- 

 out them. While according to others, a horse is liable to work sound 

 on city pavements with ringbone as with sidebone. 



Moller recognizes three principal causes. The first is a congenital 

 predisposition in heavy, coarse-bred horses ; the second is excessive 

 concussion produced by work or hard roads; the third is due to shoe- 

 ing with calks, by which the frog is prevented from taking any bear- 

 ing on the ground and the lateral cartileges are subjected to a con- 

 tinuous, downward strain. 



Horses with sidebones cannot be passed as sound for hard work 

 on the city pavements. They are not infrequently seen on green draft 

 horses, fresh from the country. While we must admit that many 

 horses with sidebones are serviceably sound, yet a large percentage 

 of them will go lame as a direct result of this defect or from second- 

 ary diseases of the hoof coming therefrom. It would appear that we 

 are justified in condemning stallions for breeding ])urposes when 

 sidebones develoj) before they have been shod or have done any heavy 

 work on hard roads. 



Very few of my correspondents expressed positive opinions in refer- 

 ence to the transmissibility of navicular disease. Ur. Edgar Powell 

 mentions a mare that he owned and used for breeding purposes that 

 he believed to have had this disease for twelve years. The diagnosis 

 was not confirmed by postmortem examination. She was bred to a 



