AS TO SOUNDNESS. loi 



from all enlargements whatever. Should any elongated 

 enlargement be encountered you have to determine its 

 nature and extent. In horses having long oblique pas- 

 terns, the strain on these back tendons is very great. 

 Sometimes cicatrices on the skin give you at first an im- 

 pression of knots on the tendon, but these cicatrices you 

 can move from side to side, plainly showing they have no 

 connection with the tendon. Should you meet with a 

 thickening and filling of the bursse of some considerable 

 length, depend upon it there has at some time been a 

 severe injury to these parts, and you must reject such a 

 one as unsound. 



Next make another sweep with the same parts of your 

 hand over the suspensary ligament. The outUne of this 

 should be very clear, if sound, and the horse be bearing 

 his weight on the limb. Knotty enlargements encountered 

 on this in any part of its course indicate previous injury. 

 Please notice the difference of the remains of the injury 

 upon the tendon and the suspensary ligament. In the 

 former the enlargement is elongated from above downwards., 

 in the latter a knotty enlargenient remains. Injuries to 

 the suspensary ligament are usually on its lower fourth 

 pretty near the sesamoid bones. It, like the tendon, 

 has enormous stretching when the horse has long oblique 

 pasterns. The sesamoid bones should claim your at- 

 tention simultaneously with the tendon and hgament. 

 You frequently find them enlarged, which gives the whole 

 joint an enlarged appearance, when their duties as main- 

 stays of the fetlock joints are made too onerous by long 



