HOW TO BUY AKD SELL. 41 



equally lame with both forefeet. Their ears are placed 

 backwards when in action, and there is a peculiarity about 

 their stepping, as if from anxiety to retain their feet 

 upon the ground each time they touched it. There is 

 also a peculiarity in the working of the shoulder-blades, 

 and, in spite of their mostly going well upon their 

 haunches to relieve their forefeet, they are very shaky 

 and unpleasant, more especially when put into the canter. 

 Some consider them easy in the trot. They ought, how- 

 ever, to be used only in harness, or where there is no 

 weight on the back: they are UNSOUND. 



LAME. 



Horses when more tender in one foot than the other 

 presuming it is the forefoot or leg droop the head 

 when they step upon the unsound foot, and raise it when 

 stepping on the sound one; they also step "longer" with 

 the lame one than the sound one, and keep it a shorter 

 time on the ground. You may hear the lame foot touch 

 the ground lighter than the sound one with its hard, 

 firm, short step. Lameness is the language of pain, ex- 

 pressing no more than the animal really feels; it tells the 

 plain and honest truth, with the greatest simplicity. Is 

 not this "the strongest appeal to our sympathies? Ought 

 we not to attend to their dictates, and do all we can to 

 relieve their sufferings? 



A little care at the proper period will often prevent a 

 lameness becoming permanent. Slight attention will re- 

 lieve the pain of the incurable. 



Many horses, which go lame with weight upon their 

 backs, will go sound in single harness, because the weight 

 is lessened; and often, where lame here, will go sound in 

 double, because there is no weight at all. 



Instead of riding a lame horse, try single or double har- 

 ness. There are some who can perform slow work with- 



