142 WARRANTY OF 



" Curb/' such stiffness is caused by disease, the horse 

 is UNSOUND. 



Hard Mouth. 



The mouth being so hard as to render the horse 

 unmanageable by ordinary users is a ' VICE. 



But to this rule there is a well-known exception in 

 the case of " trotters/' which are expected to run away 

 in trotting, and which, from their make, as before de- 

 scribed, must bear heavily on the bit, so as to be kept 

 upon their legs. With this class of horses, a hard 

 mouth is considered rather a virtue. 



This expression hard mouth often misleads users 

 into treating a horse as if he had altogether lost all 

 sensation in his mouth, thereby aggravating instead 

 of remedying the evil ; the fact being, that mismanage- 

 ment has drilled the horse into bearing unnecessary 

 punishment of the bit while a good horseman will 

 quickly make the horse answer his hand, and in a short 

 time permanently restore the tone and liveliness of its 

 mouth. On this subject, see " The Horse/' 



Wounds. 



Wounds of every description, however slight they 

 may be, since there is no certainty as to how they 

 may terminate, stamp a horse as UNSOUND. 



