50 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 



LECTURE VII. 



The Fore Foot (continued)— Horse Examination very Difficult : Why: 

 Cases as • Examples — A Classification: I. Anomalies of Size; 

 11. Anomalies of Shape ; III. Anomalies of Position ; 

 IV. Injuries ; V. Diseases — Feet compared with each other, 

 and with the Horse's Bulk — Too Large Feet — Feet too Small — 

 Signs of previous Fever in the Feet — Test for a previous Inflam- 

 mation in the Feet — Frogs Atrophied — Frogs too Large. 



Gentlemen, — It occurs to me that the last lecture and 

 the present one will give you some idea of the great diffi- 

 culty of the task of any one, I don't mind how wide his 

 experience may be, who undertakes to examine a horse 

 as to soundness. The points you have to look to at 

 this stage are so numerous that we cannot do better than 

 classify them first, and then go over them in detail, but 

 not necessarily one by one, because you will find that 

 there occur endless combinations. These combinations 

 are often extremely embarrassing, for whilst the least 

 experienced can at once give an opinion and have no 

 doubt in his mind upon well-marked cases of disease — 

 such as corn, sand-crack, and so on — we find the most 

 experienced sometimes at a loss when combinations of 

 minor defects are met with. Let us suppose a few cases 



