98 



practised eye will perceive a blemish without half 

 of these minute precautions ; but as I am writing 

 for the benefit of the inexperienced, I would not 

 advise the omission of one of them, whenever a 

 doubt is entertained. 



It would not be inexpedient to look for a scar 

 an the head, and above the eye ; for a decided fall 

 often leaves very unequivocal symptoms there. 

 During the whole process, the purchaser must 

 stop his ears with cotton. 



Lameness of the shoulder is by no means so 

 frequent as is commonly supposed. Every igno- 

 rant smith who finds a horse lame, and cannot dis- 

 cover any very obvious cause, such as those which 

 I have been describing, attributes it, as a matter 

 of course, to the shoulder. I believe that nineteen 

 times out of twenty, the foot will be found to be 

 m fault ; there are many cases in which disease 

 undoubtedly exists in the feet, where no outward 

 indication of it is shown. A deep-seated bruise 

 will often be followed by a secretion of matter 

 under the horny sole, without any visible enlarge- 

 ment or depression of the cavity of the hoof; 

 sometimes (though rarely) the injury is detected 

 by the appearance of matter exuding from fissures 

 in the coronet; but where external symptoms like 

 these are wanting, the inexperienced farrier assumes 



