38 LIVE-STOCK JUDGING 



pasterns that he can only get about the feed lot with 

 difficulty, or a bull with only one testicle in his scrotum or 

 so weak in the hocks that he cannot mount a cow, are 

 almost as much incapacitated as is the horse that is lame. 

 69. Breeding unsoundness. Any condition which 

 may prevent a male animal from impregnating the female, 

 or the female from delivering a live, normal young, con- 

 stitutes breeding unsoundness. Furthermore, the posses- 

 sion by a breeding animal of any condition which, 

 transmitted to its offspring, may partially or completely 

 incapacitate it, is also a breeding unsoundness. How- 

 ever, the transmissibility of many of the so-called heredi- 

 tary unsoundnesses has not been established ; even roaring 

 and moon blindness in horses, the only two things for 

 which stallions are disqualified in France, where the most 

 comprehensive system of inspection is, are now believed 

 to be more frequently the result of preexisting influenza 

 in the one case, and of an enzootic infection in the other, 

 than of hereditary influences. Yet, on the other hand, 

 almost any unsoundness of a male or female may manifest 

 itself in the get with more than casual uniformity, thus 

 proving its transmissible nature. 



60. Defective conformation. Unsoundness, or, more 

 particularly, the defective conformation which predis- 

 poses to it, is of considerable importance to the judge 

 of any class of stock, but on account of the more complex 

 nature of the horse's function and the greater variety of 

 conditions by which that function may be impaired, dis- 

 cussion of the subject will be directed, chiefly, to the 

 horse. 



61. Unsoundness in horses may be of eyes, wind or 

 limb. Mental defects are usually included under vices. 

 So far as show ring judging goes, the matter of unsoundness 



