IMPERTINENCE AND CUNNING. 243 



assert that a horse is likely to become lame in his feet, 

 when it is understood that he will have to be ridden or 

 driven at a severe pace over hard roads four or five days 

 during every week of his existence ; or that a horse, 

 which has to carry a crushing weight to hounds over a 

 deep or hilly country, will be likely to contract curbs and 

 other hock lameness ; or that a horse which is going to 

 be put to severe work in an aldermanic stable will be 

 liable to contract inflammation of the organs of respi- 

 ration, and become a roarer ; which prophetic wisdom 

 the veriest tyro in horse flesh could propound, if pos- 

 sessed of a similar amount of impertinence and cunning. 



In a great measure, the public have brought this state 

 of things on themselves, by requiring the veterinary 

 surgeon to dive into futurity, and give an infallible 

 opinion as to soundness when neither lameness nor 

 any other disease is in existence at the time of exami- 

 nation ; so that the honest, high-minded, and highly 

 gifted professional man is occasionally tempted to re- 

 ject horses of certain formation, merely because he has 

 known many horses similarly formed prove unsound, 

 and not at all because the horse exhibited symptoms of 

 unsoundness at the time of examination. 



Now, it appears to me that the only correct prin- 

 ciple of examining horses as to soundness, is to leave 

 the consideration of peculiar formation — like colour, 

 size, and sex — entirely to the judgment of the pur- 

 chaser. 



If he likes a horse with curby hocks, when no lame- 

 ness exists, it is surely no affair of the advising counsel. 



R 2 



