Section IX.-EXAMmATION OF HORSES 



AS TO SOUNDNESS 



INTRODUCTORY 



The examination of horses as to soundness is a difficult and in many 

 instances an unthankful task, even to the expert veterinarian. Yet many 

 horsemen outside the professional element undertake it, and in a certain 

 measure succeed. By long experience they are enabled to recognize the 

 grosser organic defects and their consequences which appear on the surface, 

 and their familiarity with the normal action renders any serious disturb- 

 ance in this I'espect a noticeable object. Even those less informed and 

 with no experience to guide them venture to undertake the responsibility, 

 and sometimes by a stroke of luck without suffering loss, but in the 

 majority of cases to find that their self-reliance has played them false 

 and landed them in a more or less costly difficulty which is too often 

 rendered still more so by the interposition of the solicitor, maybe the 

 learned counsel and the court. 



It is not to be expected that anything which we may write will imbue 

 lay eyes, lay fingers, and the lay mind with that co-ordinated intelligence 

 which the qualified veterinarian possesses, and for this reason alone it is 

 always desirable that the one should seek the assistance of the other 

 when the question of soundness is involved. 



What we are about to say, therefore, as to the examination of horses is 

 not with any idea of encouraging the horse-buyer to disregard this common 

 duty to himself, but rather to show him how great are the difficulties in the 

 way of its successful performance, and to assist those who are beyond the 

 reach of veterinary aid, or who have not the means to procure it; also to 

 help others who, while recognizing a defect, fail to interpret its effect on 

 the value and utility of the animal. 



The important questions involved in the examination of horses are: — 



1. Does the animal present any ajjpearance to indicate the existence of 

 disease or its effects? 



Vol. III. 365 89 



