372 EXAMINATION OF HORSES AS TO SOUNDNESS 



widely as shown in fig. 599. This affords an opportunity to decide upon: 

 1, the age; 2, as to whether the teeth show any excess or deficiency in 

 number; 3, any irregularity in their growth, distribution, or direction; 

 4, any disease. A horse whose teeth are so situated, or directed, or exist 

 in such number or condition as to interfere with his feeding, is unsound. 



The tongue should be free from disease, and the lower jaw, between 

 the tush and the grinders, needs careful attention, as here serious damage 

 is sometimes done with the bit, causing abscess and sloughing of a portion 

 of the bone, a state of things which unfits the horse for work and renders 

 him unsound. 



The hand should now be passed along the sides and under part of 

 the throat, over the poll and the withers. The glands of the throat 

 may show enlargement left as the result of cold, influenza, or strangles. 

 The poll, or the withers, may be enlarged and tender from a forming 

 abscess, or from a declining fistula. 



It sometimes occurs that the jugular vein becomes blocked as the 

 result of injury inflicted upon it by bleeding. If pressure is made upon 

 the vessel in the middle of the neck groove, and the flow of blood from 

 the head be interrupted, the vein in a normal state will become filled 

 out and distended, but if obliterated, or spoilt, will undergo no change 

 above the seat of pressure. 



GENERAL EXAMINATION 



The horse may now be led out, and, while standing perfectly quiet, 

 subjected to a careful inspection as to any alteration of form from accident 

 or disease. In this connection he will require to stand on level ground 

 and be viewed from all points and in all his various parts; from below, 

 from behind, in profile and diagonally, as well as from the front. 



Viewed from the front the feet should be compared, to see whether 

 they are alike, or if one is smaller than the other, or whether there is 

 or is not some defect of formation, or a shelly or weak condition of the 

 hoof, or sandcrack. 



Carrying the eye upward along the course of the legs the observations 

 to be made here should be concerned in the first place with their direction 

 are they straight, or does the animal knuckle over at the fetlocks, or 

 stand over at the knees? do the joints show signs of wear or enlarge- 

 ment, or the muscles of the shoulder an appearance of wasting? 



Looking back in the line of the quarters the examiner should note 

 whether the hips are intact, or \vhether one has been broken ("Hip down"). 



Any scars or abrasions on the knees will also be noticed at this time. 



