18 WARRANTY OF 



will stand equally well on wet and on hard dry soil, on 

 the latter the wide-spread flat foot will quickly give 

 way on account of its proneness to injury from its 

 softness. 



The celebrated trotters of the Wildfire breed had 

 these flat feet, and every one who remembers them 

 must recollect how soon they became cripples. 



As feet of this description are adapted only for the 

 work such horses are required to perform in their native 

 country, it may perhaps be right enough to call them 

 sound, prior to their receiving injury. It is for the 

 buyer to judge whether or not they are adapted to 

 the work he requires. 



Still, why this weakly foot should be allowed to pass 

 as sound, to the prejudice of the other, I have always 

 been at a loss to know. The colt foaled with certain 

 sized feet the effect of the soil on which it was bred 

 although it has never been afflicted with lameness or 

 disease of any kind, is said to have contracted feet, 

 and is condemned as unsound, because it is imagined 

 that its hoofs are narrower than Fancy's prescribed 

 limits. " He is unsound/' says one; " I am doubtful/' 

 says another, " whether, according to law, it is an un- 

 soundness ; he seems to go very well at present. He 

 might have been better had they been a little more 

 open/' 



Why should this be ? In the human being, not 

 only in different nations, but in the same country, we 



