COMMON UX30UNDXES8ES. 173 



any heat or any perceptible cause for the lameness, 

 you may set it down in most cases as navicular 

 lameness. 



If a horse is sometimes lame and sometimes 

 sound in its fore feet, without any particular reason, 

 it is very likely to be the beginning of navicular lame- 

 ness. 



A veterinary surgeon will be able from experience 

 to tell you whether it is so or not, but he could 

 hardly explain to you liow he could tell, and he could 

 not teach anyone unaccustomed to see lame horses 

 how to judge for himself. I should think that bad 

 shouldered horses would be more likely to acquire 

 this disease than good ones, if they each had gone 

 through the same amount of work ; for this reason, 

 that a bad shouldered horse not only puts his fore 

 foot down more heavily than a good shouldered one 

 naturally, but also that he carries his rider more 

 forward, and therefore has more weight on the top 

 of his fore legs. The concussion, therefore, must 

 be greater in every step that he takes. 



It is found, however, I believe, that this disease 

 attacks good shouldered horses as much, if not more, 

 than bad ones ; so much so that it is sometimes 

 called the curse of good horses. 



How then are we to explain the discrepancy. 



The explanation, I take it, is this : that when a 

 horse has a good, willing temper, and pleasant easy 



