20 SOUNDNESS. 



that every horse going lame — no matter from what cause — ought 

 to be pronounced unsound. 



Tf any real objection can be urged to the institution of such a 

 law, one presents itself in the case of a horse who is lame at one 

 time and sound at another. For instance, a horse shall have a 

 frush, of which he shall flinch or go palpably lame every time he 

 happens to tread upon a stone, or whenever he goes upon hard 

 uneven surfaces ; though at other times, upon soft ground or upon 

 turf, he shall appear quite sound. This horse, we think, stands, 

 in respect to the question of soundness, altogether in a different 

 position from either the stone-in-the-foot or the tight-shoe case : here 

 IS disease — demonstrable disease; and although it gives rise but 

 occasionall}' to lameness, still, as lameness is at times the result, 

 we hold that the horse ought to be accounted unsound. The spavin 

 — in certain forms — -affords another example of temporary or transi- 

 tory lameness. A spavined horse shall come excessively lame out of 

 liis stable in the morning, but after having gone awhile and waxed 

 warm shall no longer exhibit lameness, or even stiffness of his hock. 

 In accordance with the laws of the judges, and with that of our late 

 Professor (Coleman), such a horse being not " less fit for present use 

 or convenience," being " able to go through the same labour as before 

 the defect or blemish," able to perform the " ordinary duties of an 

 ordinary horse," — such a horse, we repeat, must be pronounced, so 

 long as he continues in this aptitude, to be sound ; whereas, how- 

 ever much we may differ concerning other points, we believe all 

 veterinarians will concur with us in opinion in declaring the occa- 

 sionally lame spavined — if not the lame frushed — horse to be un- 

 sound, notwithstanding his redeeming quality of becoming sound on 

 work, and of continuing so to the end of that work. 



However strong we may feel ourselves in our axiom — that a 

 lame horse must be accounted unsound — the moment, as we ob- 

 served before, we attempt the converse of it, viz., that every horse 

 free from lameness is (as respects the question of lameness) to be 

 held as sound, we change into a position most infirm and unte- 

 nable. All sorts of diseases and defects stare us in the face, 

 which, though not the immediate producers of lameness, too surely, 

 in our minds, betoken its approach, waiting only for work or other 



