DEFECTS.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[defects. 



certainly repent of his bargain, but he cannot 

 get rid of it. He must therefore be careful, 

 as the law will not protect him if he does not 

 use common precaution. 



Lameness, from whatever cause arising, is 

 unsoundness. However temporary it may be, 

 or however obscure, it lessens the utility of the 

 horse, and renders him unsound for the time. 

 How far his soundness may be afterwards 

 affected, must depend on the circumstances of 

 the case. A lame horse is for the time an un- 

 eound one. 



Lord Ellenborough, in the case of Elclon v. 

 Brogden, says — " I have always held, and now 

 hold, that a warranty of soundness is broken 

 if the animal, at the time of sale, has an infir- 

 mity upon liim which renders him less fit for 

 present service. It is not necessary that the 

 disorder should be permanent or incurable. 

 While a horse has a cough he is unsound ; 

 although it may either be temporary or may 

 prove mortal. Tlie horse in question having 

 been lame at the time of sale, when he was 

 warranted to be sound, his condition subse- 

 quently is no defence to the action." This 

 judgment is confirmed by the decision of Mr. 

 Baron Parke ; but lawyers, as well as doctors, 

 sometimes differ in their judgments. Chief 

 Justice Eyre says — " A horse labouring under 

 a temporary hurt, which is capable of being 

 speedily cured or removed, is not an unsound 

 horse ; and where a warranty is made that such 

 a horse is sound, it is made without any view 

 to such an injury ; nor is a horse so circum- 

 stanced within the meaning of the warranty. To 

 vitiate the warranty, the injury the horse has 

 sustained, or the malady under which he 

 laboured, ought to be of a permanent nature, 

 and not sucli as may arise from a temporary 

 injury or accident." 



Neurotomy. A question has arisen how far 

 n horse that has undergone the operation of 

 the division of the nerve of the leg, and has 

 recovered from the lameness with which lie 

 was before affected, and stands his work well, 

 may be considered to be sound. It was the 

 opinion of Chief Justice Best that such a horse 

 was unsound ; and, in our opinion, there can- 

 not be a doubt about the matter. An animal 

 on which this operation has been performed 

 may be improved ; may cease to be lame, may 

 go well for many years ; but there ia no 

 162 



certainty of his continuing to do so ; and he is 

 unsound. 



Fumiced-foot. When the union between 

 the horny and sensible lamina, or little plates 

 of the foot, is weakened, and the coffin-bone 

 is let down, and presses upon the sole, and the 

 sole yields to this unnatural weight, be- 

 com.es rounded, and is brought in contact with 

 the ground, and gets bruised and injured, that 

 horse must be unsound, and unsound for ever, 

 because there are no means by which we can 

 replace the coffin-bone in its original situation. 



Lateral Cartilages. When these become ossi- 

 fied, it almost invariably causes lameness, and 

 constitutes unsoundness. 



Qmdding. If the mastication of the food 

 gives pain to the animal, in consequence of 

 soreness of the mouth or throat, he will drop 

 it before it is perfectly chewed. This, as an 

 indication of disease, constitutes unsoundness- 

 Quidding sometimes arises from irregularity 

 in the teeth, which wound the cheek with their 

 sharp edges ; or a protruding tooth renders it 

 impossible for the horse to close his jaws so as 

 to cliew his food thoroughly. Quidding is 

 unsoundness for the time ; but the unsound- 

 ness will cease when the teeth are properly 

 filed, or the soreness relieved, or the cause of 

 the imperfect chewing removed. 



Quittor is unsoundness. 



'Ring-hone. Although when the bony tu- 

 mour is small, and on one side only, there is 

 little or no lameness, yet there are a few in- 

 stances in which a horse with ring-bone has 

 worked for many years without lameness. 

 From the action of the foot, and the stress 

 upon the part, tlie inflammation and the forma- 

 tion of bone contract a tendency to spread so 

 rapidly, that we must pronounce the slightest 

 enlargement of the pasterns, or around the 

 coronet, to be a cause of iinsoundness. 



SavuJcrach is manifestly unsoundness. It 

 may occur without the slightest warning ; and 

 no horse can be returned for the appearance of 

 one that is sprung after purchase. The usual 

 cause of this disease is too great brittleness of 

 the crust of the hoof; but there is no infallible 

 method of detecting this, or the degree in 

 which it must exist, to constitute unsoundness. 

 "When the horn round the bottom of the foot 

 has chipped off so much that only a skilful 

 smith can fasten the shoe without pricking the 



