OF FARRIERY. 



497 



instances, they are the consequence of sprain 

 of the hock, and when accompanied by en- 

 largement, there would be unsoundness. A 

 special warranty should always be taken 

 against capped hocks. 



Contraction is a considerable deviation from 

 the natural form of the foot, but not neces- 

 sarily constituting unsoundness ; it requires, 

 however, a most careful examination on the 

 part of the purchaser or veterinary surgeon 

 to ascertain that there is no heat about the 

 quarter, or ossification of the cartilage ; that 

 the frog, although diminished in size, is not 

 diseased ; that the Horse does not step short 

 and go as if the foot were tender, and that 

 there is not the slightest trace of lameness. 

 Unless these circumstances, or some of them, 

 are detected, a Horse must not be pronounced 

 to be unsound because his feet are contracted, 

 for many Horses with strangely contracted 

 feet, are never lame : a special warranty, 

 however, should be required where the feet 

 are at all contracted. 



Corns manifestly constitute unsoundness. 

 The portion of the foot in which they are 

 situated will not bear the ordinary pressure 

 of the shoe ; and any accidental additional 

 pressure from the growing down of the horn, 

 or the introduction of dirt or gravel, will cause 

 serious lameness. They render it necessary 

 to wear a thick and heavy shoe, or a bar shoe, 

 to protect the weakened and diseased part ; 

 and corns are very seldom radically cured. 



Cough. This is a disease, and conse- 

 quently unsoundness. However slight may 

 be its degree, and of whatever short standing 

 it is, although it may sometimes seem scarcely 

 to interfere with the usefulness of the Horse, 

 a change of stabling, or slight exposure to wet 

 and cold, or the least over-exertion, may at 



other times cause it to degenerate into many 

 dangerous complaints. A Horse, therefore, 

 should never be purchased with a cough upon 

 him without an especial warranty ; or if the 

 cough not being observed, he is purchased 

 under a general warranty, he may be returned 

 as soon as it is discovered 



Roaring, Wheeziiig^ Whistling, High-bloio- 

 ing, and Grunting, being the result of altera- 

 tion of structure or disease in some of the air 

 passages, and interfering with the perfect 

 freedom of breathing, and especially when the 

 Horse is put on his speed, without doubt con- 

 stitute unsoundness. There are decisions to 

 the contrary, which are now universally ad- 

 mitted to be erroneous. Broken wind is still 

 decidedly unsoundness. 



Crib-biting. — Although there is some dif- 

 ference of opinion among veterinary surgeons 

 on this point, crib-biting must be regarded as 

 unsoundness. This unnatural sucking in of 

 t!ie air must be to a certain degree injurious 

 to digestion, must dispose to colic, and so 

 interfere with the strength, and usefulness, 

 and health of the Horse. Some crib-biters 

 are good guers, but they probably would have 

 possessed more endurance had they not ac- 

 quired this habit ; and it is a fact well estab- 

 lished, that as soon as a Horse begins to 

 become a crib-biter, he, in more than nine 

 cases out often, begins to lose condition. He 

 is not, to the experienced eye, the Horse he 

 was before. It may not lead on to absolute 

 disease, or it may rarely do so to any consider- 

 able degree ; but a Horse that is deficient i : 

 condition, must, to that extent, have his 

 capability for extraordinary work diminished, 

 although not so often as to be apparent in 

 ordinary work, and so far, the Horse is un- 

 sound. Were there no other consideration, 

 6 K 



