I04 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 



the lower part of the knee was, as he pointed out to 

 them, filled up, so that instead of there being a sHght 

 depression, as in sound horses, the lower part of the knee 

 had no well-defined border. On running the hand over 

 these parts you will, under such circumstances, fail to 

 detect a splint if you are not careful, but a comparison 

 of the two knees, seen from the front, always discloses 

 the ailment. Splints, in their usual situation, in the 

 upper two-thirds of the cannon bone on the inside, are 

 to be judged according to their age, but more especially 

 according to the age of the horse. I never yet heard of 

 a good horseman thinking any worse of a horse because 

 of his having a single splint favourably situated and 

 thoroughly formed, provided the horse was sound in 

 every other point, and not less tha7i seven years old. 

 Splints, wherever situated, lame horses during their for- 

 mation, but after they are once well formed, they hardly 

 ever cause lameness, unless they encroach upon an impor- 

 tant structure. Their sizes are various, being often no 

 larger than a small split bean, but are occasionally seen 

 the size of half an orange ; when situated at the back 

 of the bone and between the two small splint bones 

 they are often moulded by the parts which press upon 

 them, and so interfere with these parts less than one 

 would at first suppose. Their being single or multiple 

 on the same bone is of little importance if well situated 

 and fully formed. Should they encroach upon and inter- 

 fere with either the tendon or ligament, they are a grave 

 defect. 



