374 EXAMINATION OF HORSES AS TO SOUNDNESS 



ERUPTIVE DISEASES 



While this course is being gone through, any eruption on the skin, 

 or warts, tumours, or scars resulting from their removal, will come under 

 notice. Pimples and nodules on the skin of grey horses, especially in 

 the region of the flank, about the sheath, perineum, or anus, are always, 

 suggestive of a form of growth (melariosis) of a malignant character. 

 Eruptions behind the knees and in the bend of the hocks, termed respec- 

 tively " mallenders" and " sallanders", interfere with action, and some- 

 times altogether unfit the horse for work, in which case they constitute 

 an unsoundness; and the same may be said with regard to the disease 

 termed " grease", and all other eruptions when occurring on parts of 

 the body where they will interfere with the animal's services. 



ACTION 



We may now direct our attention to the horse's action, for which 

 purpose he should first be made to walk about 50 yards backwards and 

 forwards, with his head as free and unrestrained as it can possibly be 

 allowed. The common practice of taking hold of the bridle close to the 

 bit, and forcing up the head, as usually adopted by the expert nagsman, 

 adds very considerably to the difficulty of forming a diagnosis in the 

 slighter forms of lameness, and may be the means of causing them to 

 be altogether overlooked. The animal may now be turned short round 

 from right to left, and from left to right, and then caused to move in 

 a backward direction. During this test it will be noticed whether the, 

 action is close, and such as to cause brushing, or interfering, and whether 

 there are any indications of stringhalt or shivering. The former will be 

 indicated by a spasmodic upward jerk in one or both hind limbs rarely 

 it may occur in the fore ones while the latter is recognized by a difficulty 

 in backing, during which the muscles of the quarter and the tail are 

 thrown into a tremulous condition (fig. 533). Although both these affec- 

 tions constitute unsoundness, it must be borne in mind that animals that 

 suffer from them are generally capable of performing a considerable amount 

 of useful work; and further, that either of them may exist in such an 

 incipient condition as only to be perceived on rare occasions. It cannot 

 therefore be said that because a horse does not exhibit signs of their 

 presence at the time of the examination he is necessarily free from them. 



Lameness when present is not always developed by walking, but 

 may only appear in the faster paces, and even then it may not be 



