IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 101 



pleasantness of a horse, it is just as disagreeable to 

 ride one that you think will fall, as one that is al- 

 ready a professed stumbler ; and you never can feel 

 perfectly secure with a splent under you, wherever it 

 may appear. It certainly, however, would not be 

 deemed unsoundness, if the animal was not actually 

 lame. Dealers will tell you, ay, and swear to it 

 stoutly, that they frequently disappear, after a year 

 or two, or even a few months. That casual swellings, 

 and perhaps of a callous nature, may do so, I will not 

 deny ; but, if I am right in assuming the real splent 

 to be an unnatural ossification of the membrane that 

 covers the bone, or of the surrounding integuments, 

 I believe that it will never disappear, and, on the 

 contrary, has a constant tendency to increase. I 

 must in candor, however, admit a fact that rather 

 militates against my position, that splents are not 

 commonly found in old horses. In the case which I 

 have just mentioned, my horse certainly was eight 

 years old when I sold him ; but I have observed 

 them in at least four or five horses of the age of 

 five and six, for one that was aged. This very 

 season I inspected a lot of five-year olds just arrived 

 from the country, — all high-priced horses : there 



