AS TO "SOUNDNESS" 



fortunate enough to fall short of the high physical 

 standard arbitrarily imposed. For another thing, 

 there are numerous veterinarians, who whisper ! 

 are not horsemen ; that is, in the broad sense of 

 being " born horsemen." They know technique, 

 they have an eagle eye and velvet touch and all 

 the other qualifications for the job, but they are 

 not horsemen. They have been taught the busi- 

 ness all right enough, but they lack the intuitive 

 appreciation of the " born horseman " to apply it 

 fairly for the best interests of all. 



Many angry mutterings are heard at our horse- 

 shows every year through this lack of any recog- 

 nized system. The show-ring legend, " Horses 

 must be practically sound," means what ? And 

 the occasional stipulation, " Horses must be 

 sound " (no " if" or " perhaps " about it), is to be 

 construed how ? And how many of the horses, 

 exhibited in any class, would receive a clean bill 

 of health ? A splint is a splint, a filled tendon is 

 nothing else, a coarse hock is not smooth, a " bit 

 of a cold" is not good wind. Where shall the 

 line be drawn, and who shall draw it ? 



The foreign buyers, especially the English- 

 men, have " wiped our eye " significantly over 

 this soundness matter. Bumpy or smooth, if the 



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