AS TO SOUNDNESS. 73 



walked and slowly trotted. There was nothing in the 

 gait to be called lameness, and yet there was a some- 

 thing in the gait which I thought was awkward — 

 something wrong. He seemed physically such a perfect 

 horse, and was not too old. In trying his wind, I had 

 ridden him hard in a grass field and at a swinging canter. 

 Now in walking on the hard road his gait was wrong. 

 I got on him again, and im^nediately felt his numb 

 wooden feet. On dismounting I carefully searched for 

 and found the very neat cicatrices. He had been 

 " nerved " on both his fore fetlocks, very neatly indeed, 

 and so effectually that it was discovered in his gait on 

 the hard road. The hard, metalled road was as much 

 a paradise to him as a soft grassy park, — which, as I 

 have said, betrayed him. The man who can have 

 pleasure in riding a " nerved " horse has no claim to 

 the title of horseman. You cannot be too careful in 

 looking for "nerving" marks, in order that one so vilely 

 mutilated may be rejected at any price. If the foot 

 has been " nerved," it has been deprived of the most 

 precious gift of organic life — the power to feel, therefore 

 the power to feel pain ; and, in consequence, it has 

 lost the first essential of self-conservation. Degenera- 

 tion of the tissues may be delayed for a time in the 

 " nerved " foot, but if it has been effectively done, 

 that is, done so that there shall never be reunion of 

 the nerve, then it is physiologically impossible for de- 

 generation of tissue to be delayed over a very short 

 time. Having satisfied yourself that there has been no 



