EXAMINING A HORSE FOR SOUNDNESS 345 



as streaks running from the middle outwards. Cataract 

 must not be confounded with simple specks on the cornea, 

 the clear fore-part of the eye through which the light passes, 

 which may be of no consequence, whether they interfere 

 with the vision or not depending upon their situation. If 

 there is a doubt felt about cataract being present the animal 

 should be taken into a dark stable, and a match struck and 

 held close to the eye, when with a sound eye three reflections 

 should be seen, one being inverted to the other two, which 

 are upright. When the light is waved to and fro the two 

 reflections should follow its movement, and the other move 

 in the contrary direction. Besides cataract and specks, it 

 must be noted whether the pupil contracts and enlarges, 

 according to the degree of light, for the eye may look 

 perfectly right and yet the horse be absolutely blind, 

 suffering from amaurosis, or gutta serena. The pupil then 

 remains of one size, and the eye has a glassy appearance. 

 An additional test is cautiously to advance a finger very close 

 to the eye, when the animal will not wink or take any 

 notice, though if this is done too rapidly, or violently, 

 the horse will perceive that something is being done, 

 through some subtle sense, and the supposed test be of 

 no avail. 



Even if the eyes are healthy there is yet a trap for the 

 unwary, as sometimes the curious dark body of the eye, 

 the corpus nigrum, is of such size as seriously to impede 

 the sight, and hence largely to diminish the usefulness of the 

 horse as a hack or hunter. 



The eye should be large and generous-looking, and the 

 outer portion, the cornea, not be too convex and protruding 

 beyond the eyelids, for animals possessing such are usually 

 short-sighted and given to shying. In stable language this 

 formation is termed buck-eyed. 



The last portion of the examination is for the wind, and 

 no test equals either galloping the animal under the saddle, 

 or lunging it in a circle. Although all roarers will grunt if 

 threatened with a stick, it is not all grunters who are wrong 

 in their wind. Coughing an animal by pinching the wind- 

 pipe is also not a sure test, and it requires a carefully trained 



