258 SOUNDNESS AND UNSOUNDNESS 



The tendency of men who love riding well-bred 

 horses too light to carry them, swells the number 

 of spavined patients for vets to treat but not to 

 cure ; for spavin is an incurable disease, inflicted 

 often through thoughtless cruelty on a too willing 

 horse, who has done all to carry out his master's 

 or mistress's wishes in jumping or galloping 

 through heavy ground, or pulling a carriage 

 up-hill when the driver's or the rider's common- 

 sense should have revolted against doing an 

 unnecessary cruelty which has caused a spavin 

 for life and made the horse unsightly by disease, 

 and lessened the value of the patient by quite 

 seventy-five per cent. 



Unhappily half the people who ride and drive 

 horses and understand spavins are inclined to 

 ignore the pain they inflict through straining 

 them ; and those who spavin their mounts out 

 of ignorance inflict as much cruelty unknowingly 

 as many a professional torturer has done in the 

 past, when thumb-screws, racks, and iron cages 

 were in vogue. 



There is one inexorable law in connection with 

 nature, and that is, abuse it and you must cause 

 injury in proportion to the abuse. To make this 

 clearer, take the case of any act of cruelty. 

 Smash a horse's feet on the "hard, high road," 

 and you produce navic. 



Strain a youngster in heavy going and you 

 set up a curb. Gallop a horse unfit, cruelly 

 hard, and you will get a broken wind ; more 

 especially if you feed him on bad hay and in- 

 ferior and dusty oats. On the other hand, treat 



