26 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 



part, I have found it best to explain very fully to the 

 purchaser, in writing by preference, the whole matter. 

 It is clear that you can do nothing else ; as a horse that 

 has had an acute attack of inflammation in any vital or 

 essential organ cannot be sound for the reason I have 

 named ; yet you may not be able to say where and how 

 the horse is unsound. You know how subject some 

 horses are to periodic attacks of colic, and what a 

 common remedy bleeding is for it, and how anxious 

 owners are to get rid of such horses, for fear of their 

 having a fatal attack. So that an unmistakable mark of 

 a horse's having been bled from the neck is not to be 

 passed over, although the jugular vein may be perfect. 



You next proceed to the shoulder, and look for 

 injuries to the skin caused by the collar ; for atrophy of 

 the muscles occupying the spaces in front and behind 

 the spine of the scapula; and for evidences of injuries 

 from accident or surgical remedies about the point of the 

 shoulder. With regard to "collar marks," as they are 

 called, we are too apt to overlook them, or pass over 

 them lightly. About five years ago I was much annoyed 

 with a case. One market day, a gentleman brought 

 into Leeds for my inspection an aged horse that had 

 carried his owner with hounds, to my own knowledge, 

 for some years. The gentleman was selling this horse 

 to one of my best cHents. I noticed the collar marks, 

 which I took as little notice of as of the marks on his 

 fore legs, made by timber and stone walls. The horse 

 was passed as practically sound, and I assure you that 



