66 SYMPTOMS OF SPAVIN. 



this, and with spavin present as well, evidently hot and tender 

 to pressure, there can exist no doubt about the case. Where, 

 however, the lameness is but slight, although a spavin is present, 

 yet from tlie absence of any heat or tenderness in the swelling, as 

 well as from its duration, may doubt arise as to the cause of the 

 lameness. In such a case as this we should take advantage of the 

 well-known fact of the fluctuating or evanescent character of 

 spavin lameness; to which end it is advisable to have the horse 

 under examination hard ridden or driven, or otherwise exercised 

 until he be in a profuse sweat, and afterwards kept standing tied up 

 in a stall until he be cold, and stiff in his joints, and then trotted out 

 again. A knowing vendor of a spavined horse would take care to 

 " warm" him by a good ride or drive before he took him to shew 

 to the presumed purchaser; and then, while under examination, by 

 dint of whip and spur, and management in the bridle hand, he 

 might pass his merchandize off — to an unwary buyer- — as sound. 

 Indeed, so much is sweating work, or exercise approaching thereto, 

 apt to prove a foil to shewing lameness, that one is almost inclined 

 to say no horse ought to be examined under such circumstances, 

 certainl}^ no horse suspected of spavin. The time of all others that 

 a spavined horse will be apt to manifest his lameness will be the 

 day following after a hard day's work ; and when he makes his first 

 egress from the stable in the morning is the critical period for ex- 

 amination. 



Horses that go limpingly lame from spavin, lame at all times, 

 and lamer still when they work, often experience pain in the seat 

 of disease to a degree which, in the language of Solleysell, causes 

 them "to pine away, especially about the flanks.". They have 

 probably been blistered and fired, perhaps setoned ; have had their 

 hocks frightfully scarred, and yet are lame to that degree that they 

 are unable to do more than gingerly put the toe of the foot of the 

 spavined limb to the ground, and so, painfully, hobble along ; and 

 although they may still maintain their appetite, yet are they low 

 in condition, tucked up in their flanks, evidently, in short, " pining 

 away." Such pitiable subjects, it is true, may be kept at work ; 

 the little, however, they can do when put to any thing requiring 

 strength of action or pull, together with the wretched condition 



