558 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK 



horses are set too straight down in the hoof, like a post in 

 the ground. A stumbler, however, is generally an old stiff - 

 jointed, worn-out animal, fit for nothing but the wagon or 

 the plow. There is no cure for a stumbler, and woe to the 

 man who attempts to ride one. He had better have his neck 

 insured before he mounts. 



II. UNSOUNDNESS. 



The horse can not tell his ailment, and sometimes fine- 

 looking animals possess defects that the best of judges fail 

 to discern. It is our present object to point out some of 

 the more important marks of unsoundness, to guard, the 

 reader against imposition, for jockeys are very skillful in 

 concealing the blemishes of their horses, and buyers are 

 often deceived and cheated. 



DEFECTS OF THE EYE. 



It is difficult to detect a bad eye. It can be done best in 

 the bright sunshine. The head of the horse should be held 

 in such a position as to let the sun's rays fall as directly as 

 possible upon the ball of the eye. If it is not perfectly clear, 

 the sun shining into it will reveal this. Another mode of 

 judging of the condition of the eye is by examining the 

 nose of the Horse, and looking for the little opening in the 

 back lining of the nostril, (described in the chapter on the 

 eye and blind staggers,) which is the outlet of the lachrymal 

 duct that drains the water from the eye. This little opening 

 will be discovered to be of different sizes in different horsea, 

 varying from the size of a pin*s head to an eighth or even 

 a third of an inch in diameter. The size of this opening is 

 directly indicative of the strength of the eye ; and in all cases 

 of disease of the eye, (except from blows or injuries,) and in 

 all cases of blindness caused by disease, the little opening has 

 been found to be very small ; and in a majority of eases that 

 we have examined — numbering nearly five hundred — the.se 

 openings were not larger than a pin's head; and in Jour 



