UNSOUNDNESS. 365 



which a horse with ring-bone has worked for many years without lame- 

 ness; yet, from the actioa of tlie foot, and the stress upon the part, the 

 inflammation and the formation of bone liave such a tendency rapidly to 

 spread, that we must pronounce the slightest enlargement of the pastern? 

 or around the coronet, to be a cause of unsoundness. 



Sand-ceack is manifestly unsoundness ; but it may occur without the 

 slightest warning, and no horse can be returned for one that is sprung 

 after purchase. Its usual cause is too great brittleness of the crust of the 

 hoof; but there is no infallible method of detecting this, or the degree in 

 which it must exist to constitute unsoundness. When the horn round the 

 bottom of the foot has chipped off so much that only a skilful smith can 

 fasten the shoe without pricking the horse, or even when there is a tendency 

 in the horn to chip and break off in a much less degree than this, the horse 

 may probably be returned as unsound, for this brittleness of the crust is a 

 disease of the part, or it is such an altered structure of it, as to interfere 

 materially with the usefulness of the animal. 



Spavin is unsoundness, whether the bony or the blood-spavin. In the 

 first, lameness is produced, at least at starting, in ninety-nine cases out of 

 a hundred, and there is enlargement of the hock, which rapidly spreads 

 with quick and hard work, although the horse may be capable of, and may 

 even get better at slow work. If there be no lameness, we would yet 

 reject a spavined horse, because the bony enlargement is too near a very 

 important and complicated joint, and on the least injury or sprain of that 

 joint, would spread over it, and materially interfere with its motion. 



Blood-spavin is unsoundness, because, although it may not be productive 

 of lameness, at slow work, the rapid and powerful action of the hock in 

 quicker motion will produce permanent, although not considerable lameness, 

 and which can scarcely ever be with certainty removed. 



Splent. — It depends entirely on the situation of the bony tumour on 

 the inside of the shank-bone, wliether it is to be considered as unsoundness. 

 If it is not in the neighbourhood of any joint, so as to interfere with its 

 action, and if it does not press upon any ligament or tendon, it can be no 

 cause of unsoundness; although it is often very unsightly, it does not 

 lessen the capability and value of the animal. Of this we have treated at 

 length at pages 241 and 350. 



String-halt. — This singular and very unpleasant action of the hind- 

 leg cannot be termed unsoundness. It is an irregular communication of 

 nervous energy to some muscle of the thigh, observable when the horse 

 first comes from the stable, and gradually ceasing on exercise, and has 

 usually been found in those horses that have a more than common degree 

 of strength and endurance. 



Thickening of the Back Sinews. — Sufficient attention is not always 

 paid to the fineness of the legs of the horse. If the flexor tendons 

 have been sprained so as to produce considerable thickening of the 

 cellular substance in which their sheaths are enveloped, they will long 

 aftervv'ards, or perhaps ever after, be liable to sprain from causes by which 

 ihey would otherwise be scarcely affected. The continuance ^f any 

 considerable thickness around the sheaths of the tendons indicates pre- 

 vious and violent sprain. This very thickening will fetter the action of 

 the ten 'Jons, and after much quick work will, from the very friction, 

 occasionally renew the inflammation and the lameness; therefore, such a 

 iiorse cannot be sound. It requires, however, a little discrimination to 

 distinguish this from the gumminess or roundness of leg, peculiar to 

 some breeds. There should be an evident difference between the injured 

 lea and the others. 



