DNSOUNDNESS. 391 



impairs, or is likely to impair, his natural usefulness. The horse is unsound that 

 labours under disease, or has some alteration of structure which does interfere, or is 

 likely to interfere, with his natural usefulness.* The term " natural usefulness^^ must 

 be borne in mind. One horse may possess great speed, but is soon knocked up; an- 

 other will work all day, but cannot be got beyond a snail's pace : a third with a heavy 

 forehand is liable to stumble, and is continually putting to hazard the neck of his 

 rider ; another, with an irritable constitution and a loose, washy form, loses his appe- 

 tite and begins to scour if a little extra work is exacted from him. The term un- 

 soundness must not be applied to either of these ; it would be opening far too widely 

 a door to disputation and endless wrangling. The buyer can discern, or ought to 

 know, whether the form of the horse is that which will render him likely to suit his 

 purpose, and he should tr}^ him sufficiently to ascertain his natural strength, endur- 

 ance, and manner of going. Unsoundness, we repeat, has reference only to disease, 

 or to that alteration of structure which is connected with, or will produce disease, and 

 lessen the usefulness of the animal. 



These principles will be best illustrated by a brief consideration of the usually sup- 

 posed appearances or causes of unsoundness. 



Broken knees certainly do not constitute unsoundness, after the wounds are healed, 

 unless they interfere with the action of the joint; for the horse may have fallen from 

 mere accident, or through the fault of the rider, without the slightest damage more 

 than the blemish. No person, however, would buy a horse with broken knees, until 

 he had thoroughly tried him, and satisfied himself as to his form and action. 



Capped hocks may be produced by lying on an unevenly paved stable, with a 

 scanty supply of litter, or by kicking generally, in neither of which cases would they 

 constitute unsoundness, although in the latter they would be an indication of vice; 

 but, in the majority of instances, they are the consequence of sprain, or of latent 

 injury of the hock, and accompanied by enlargement of it, and would constitute un- 

 soundness. A special warranty should always be taken against capped hocks. 



Contraction is a considerable deviation from the natural form of the foot, but not 

 necessarily constituting unsoundness. It requires, however, a most careful examina- 

 tion on the part of the purchaser or veterinary surgeon, in order to ascertain that there 

 is no heat about the quarter, or ossification of the cartilage — that the frog, although 

 diminished in size, is not diseased — that the horse does not step short and go as if 

 the foot were tender, and that there is not the slightest trace of lameness. Unless 

 these circumstances, or some of them, are detected, a horse must not be pronounced 

 to be unsound because his feet are contracted ; for many horses with strangely con- 

 tracted feet do not suffer at all in their action. A special warranty, however, should 

 be required where the feet are at all contracted. 



Corns manifestly constitute unsoundness. The portion of the foot in which bad 

 corns are situated will not bear the ordinary pressure of the shoe ; and accidental 

 additional pressure from the growing down of the horn, or the introduction of dirt or 

 gravel, will cause serious lameness. They render it necessary to wear a thick and 

 heavy shoe, or a bar shoe, in order to protect the weakened and diseased part; and 

 they are very seldom radically cured. There may be, however, and frequently is, a 

 difference of opinion as to the actual existence or character of the corn. A v-eterinary 

 surgeon may consider it so slight and insignificant as not apparently to injure the horse, 

 and he pronounces the animal to be sound ; but he should be cautious, for there are 

 corns of every shade and degree, from the slightest degree to the most serious evil. 

 They may be so slight and manageable as, though ranging under the class of morbid 

 alteration of structure, yet not to diminish the natural usefulness of the horse in any 

 degree. Slight corns will disappear on the horse being shod with ordinary skill and 

 care, even without any alteration in the shoe. 



* •■ince the publication of our first edition, this definition or rule as to soundness or unsound- 

 nesF has received very hisjli judicial sanction. Coates v. Stephens, 2 Moody and Robinson, 

 157. Scholefield v. Rohb, id. 210. We shall adhere io it as our test of soundness or unsound- 

 ness fhrousihout this chapter, not forgettinjr what is sfid in the following extract from a note 

 to one of these cases. " As it may now be considered as settled law, that the breach of a 

 warranty of soundness does not entitle the purchaser to return the horse, but only to recover 

 the difl'erence of value of the horse with or without the particular unsoundness, the question 

 of temporary maladies, producing no permanent deterioration of the animal, would, gener- 

 ally speaking, only involve a right to damages merely nominal." 



