SOUNDNESS AND UNSOUNDNESS 259 



a stud with all the common-sense you possess, 

 be generous in every conceivable way, and, with 

 ordinary luck, your steed will more than repay 

 you for your large-heartedness, by giving you 

 exceptionally good runs when you are well 

 mounted and hounds are running, or equally in 

 harness by not falling sick or lame, when other 

 horses are knocked up through selfish brutality. 



Ring-bones, side-bones, and navicular dis- 

 eases are the result of concussion, and caused 

 through trotting on macadamised roads in a great 

 many instances. 



The first two named diseases are treated by 

 firing and blistering and turning out to grass. 

 But navic — which is caries of the navicular 

 bone — is a hopeless lameness which is never 

 likely to cause other than trouble and loss to 

 whoever owns a horse with that complaint. 



My experience is that some of the best-shaped 

 and finest hunters in England have gone lame 

 through navic, and many a good judge of shape 

 has purchased a handsome horse, who jumped 

 magnificently when tried, but, when brought 

 home, had unquestionably navic. Here is the 

 great advantage of a warranty, because a horse 

 that is so guaranteed can be promptly returned 

 if he is worthlessly lame from navic, which often 

 does not torment a horse for a few days, during 

 which time he may be sold. 



Do not unnerve a horse for navic. It is a 

 needless cruelty, as, if you sever the nerve, the 

 result is that all feeling in the part severed is 

 dead, and the horse may charge a post and rails 



