26G niE iiorse-keeper's guide. 



The slmiik slioulcl hr> examined for splint, sirained oi 

 enl;irgi^<l llexois, and the marks of firing or blisters. 



In insjiecting the leg, tlie eye alone should not be trust- 

 ed, particularly in hairy-legged horses; but after minute- 

 ly comparing the appearance of the two limbs, the hand 

 should be deliberately passed down both shanks before and 

 behind ; any difference, before or behind, points to a devi- 

 ation from health. 



In the sound Hat-limb, the tendon is well defined, per- 

 fectly distinct, and has a hard tense feel that resembles the 

 touch of a cord tightly strung. If the back sinews feel 

 thick, the flexor tendons and their sheaths swelled and 

 rounded, leaving no distinctive marks as it were between 

 the one and the other, but all swelled into one mass with 

 the bone, great mischief has at some time happened ; eith- 

 er some of the ligaments have been ruptured, or there has 

 been inflamation, effusion, and -idhesion of the vaginial 

 bursae, or synovial sheaths of the flexor tendons ; or such 

 relaxation has taken place from strain and subsequent in- 

 flamation as will always keep him weak. When the inju- 

 ry is recent, it is accompanied with more or less swelling, 

 heat, and lameness ; by time and treatment the first are 

 removed, but the swelling remains, and the thickning of 

 the tendons shews the mischief that has been done. When- 

 ever there is manifest alteration of structure here, and yet 

 the animal is apparently sound in action, the purchaser 

 should bear in mind that the soundness is often the effect 

 of rest ; and should the animal be again put to work, he 

 will become lame. — And bear in mind, in such case, you 

 cannot return him, for no man in his senses would give a 

 special warrantry against it. 



Spllvts, — If large, are apparent by the deviation of the 

 outline of the leg; if small, the hand discovers them. 



Every excrescence on the cannon bone, in horseman's 

 language, is termed a spHnt. The true splint is in fact a 

 local conversion into bone of a part of the temporary car- 

 tilage, connecting together the large and small metacarpal 

 bones. The inflammation is set up by concussion or strain 

 Horses are lame from them, while there is inflammation 

 in the cartilage. But when the tumour is formed, the in- 

 flammation has subsided, and the periostrum has accom- 

 modated itself to the enlargement, the horse is no longer 

 lame, nor more likely to become lame from that splint, 



