30 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 



and elevating his chin above our head : because, in 

 the first place, both shoulders may be atrophied; and 

 further, we so very frequently find the shoulder of the 

 leading leg rather larger than its fellow. This is a part 

 of the examination in which you cannot be too careful. 

 The injury leading to the affection may be inflicted one 

 week, and the lameness and stiffness, treated by rest, 

 hot fomentations, and physic, may have so far been 

 overcome the next, that physical signs are absent, and 

 the lameness only is to be detected ; and this may be 

 so slight that an expert dealer's man, in trotting the 

 horse for you, may effectually conceal it. I cannot too 

 much impress upon you the necessity of being on your 

 guard in these slight cases ; for in not a few instances 

 do they become serious within the time that a horse, 

 found to be unsound^ may be returned. I remember 

 passing a three-year-old bay carriage horse, that became 

 lame from this cause soon afterwards. I detected no 

 difference in the two shoulders at the time; not that 

 I was very closely looking for any, but when he had 

 been driven alongside another horse for three weeks or 

 less, he became decidedly lame. The gentleman took 

 him to an elderly veterinarian in whose district my client 

 happened to be staying for a time, when atrophied 

 shoulder was made out, and an opinion given that it 

 was of some standing. Now, there happened to be a 

 distinct history of accident in this case. The coachman, 

 a hard driver, in going down a hill, saw the horse half 

 fall on what afterwards became his lame side ; recovering 



