DISEASES, DEFECTS, ETC. 105 



A slight injury of this nature is called a Sprain of the hack 

 sinews or tendons, and when it is more serious the Horse is 

 said to have Broken cloicn{e). 



A Thickening of the back sinews, which indicates a pre- 

 vious and violent sprain, is an Unsoundness, because an 

 alteration of structure has taken place, which must impair 

 the natural usefulness of the Horse. 



When the muscle, whose office it is to raise the neck and Star-gazer. 

 elevate the head, is too powerful in its action, the top of 

 the Horse's head is pulled hack and the muzzle protruded, 

 the Horse cannot possibly carry his head well ; he is what 

 is technically called a Star-gazer, heavy in hand, boring 

 upon the bit and unsafe. 



Inseparable from this is another sad defect, so far as the Ewe-necked, 

 beauty of the Horse is concerned ; he is Ewe-necked, that 

 is, he has a neck like a ewe, hollowed above, projecting 

 below, and the neck rises low out of the chest, sometimes 

 lower even than the points of the shoulders (/). These 

 being defects in the formation of a Horse are neither Un- 

 soundness nor Vice. 



Strangles are peculiar to young Horses, almost all of Strangles. 

 which have it once. It is quite different from Grlanders (g), 

 though they have sometimes been confounded. In its 

 early stage it resembles a common cold and is accompanied 

 with sore throat. It is not dangerous, and is Unsoundness 

 onJi/ during the time the Horse is ill with it (A). 



String-halt is a singular and very unpleasant action of String-halt. 

 the hind leg, arising from an irregular communication of 

 nervous energy to some muscle of the thigh, observable 

 when the Horse first comes out of the stable, and gradually 

 ceasing on exercise. It is probably so called from its re- 

 semblance to the sort of "halt" produced by a "string" 

 tied to the leg of a pig, and held in the hand of the person 

 driving it. It has often been found in those Horses that 

 have a more than common degree of strength and endur- 

 ance, and is almost entirely confined to well-bred Horses (/) . 



There has always, until lately, been a difference of Held to be 

 opinion whether String-halt constitutes Unsoundness ; how- anXJnsound- 

 ever, in Thompson v. Patteson it was held to be so, and as ^®^^" 

 the case has not been reported, it will now be given at 

 some length. It was tried before Mr. Justice Cresswell 



{e) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," (A) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," 



246. 123 ; Story on Contracts, 309. 



(/) Ibid. 155. {i) Lib. U. K. " The Horse," 



[g) Glanders, ante, p. 89. 365. 



