250 SOUNDNESS AND UNSOUNDNESS 



Granted you make up your mind to abide by 

 your own unaided opinion, the best thing to re- 

 member is to look dispassionately at the horse as 

 he is trotted backwards and forwards past you at 

 quite a slow trot, with a fair amount of liberty 

 given to his head, through the groom who "runs 

 him up" trotting him with a fairly loose rein. 

 Notice if he goes in a level manner — does not 

 drop on any of his feet, thereby indicating 

 lameness. 



Do not be on the look out to detect lameness 

 in any one leg, just when he is run out at first, but 

 give him the benefit of a wholly dispassionate 

 opinion. If, after several times passing you, the 

 horse unmistakably shows a tenderness on one 

 leg, then pay attention to the leg he thus favours. 



See if you can detect any reason for your 

 suspicions that he is lame. If you subsequently 

 find that there is nothing to further excite your 

 suspicions, and that the difference in high and 

 low ground may account for it, and there is no 

 symptom of disease so far as you can detect, have 

 the horse trotted past and re-past you until you 

 have dismissed your first opinion, and you will 

 very likely buy the horse and be right in 

 doing so. 



Try his wind with a good gallop, or with a 

 stick, catching the bridle short and pretending to 

 hit him. If he gives a broken-winded grunt do 

 not buy the horse excepting at screw price. 



Bad temper is not unsoundness, but should be 

 taken into consideration, and it would be foolish 

 in the extreme to buy a vicious or ill-tempered 



