362 THE HORSE 



foot, but not necessarily constituting unsoundness ; it requires, however, a 

 most careful examination on the part of the purchaser or veterinary sur- 

 geon, to ascertain that there is no heat about the quarter, or ossification 

 of the cartilage ; that the frog, although diminished in size, is not diseased ; 

 that the horse does not step short and go as if the foot were tender, and 

 that there is not the slightest trace of lameness. Unless these circum- 

 stances, or some of them, are detected, a horse must not ^be pronounced 

 to be unsound because his feet are contracted, for many horses with 

 strangely contracted feet, are never lame ; a special warranty, however, 

 should be required where the feet are at all contracted. 



Corns manifestly constitute unsoundness. The portion of the foot in 

 which they are situated will not bear the ordinary pressure of the shoe ; 

 and any accidental additional pressure from the growing down of the horn, 

 or the introduction of dirt or gravel, will cause serious lameness. They 

 render it necessary to wear a thick and heavy shoe, or a bar shoe, to 

 protect the weakened and diseased part ; and corns are very seldom radi- 

 cally cured. 



Cough. — This is a disease, and consequently unsoundness. However 

 slight may be its degree, and of whatever short standing it is, although it 

 may sometimes seem scarcely to interfere with the usefulness of the horse, 

 a change of stabling, or slight exposure to wet and cold, or the least over- 

 exertion, may at other times cause it to degenerate into many dangerous 

 complaints. A horse, therefore, should never be purchased with a cough 

 upon him without an especial warranty ; or if, the cough not being ob- 

 served, he is purchased under a general warranty, he may be returned as 

 soon as it is discovered. 



Roaring, Wheezing, Whistling, High-blowing, and Grunting, 

 being the result of alteration of structure or disease in some of the air 

 passages, and interfering with the perfect freedom of breathing, and espe- 

 cially when the horse is put on his speed, without doubt constitute unsound- 

 ness. There are decisions to the contrary, which are now universally 

 admitted to be erroneous. Broken wind is still more decidedly un- 

 spundness. 



Crib-biting. — Although there is some difference of opinion among vete^ 

 rinary surgeons on this point, crib-biting must be regarded as unsoundness. 

 This unnatural sucking in of the air must be to a certain degree injurious 

 to digestion, must dispose to colic, and so interfere with the strength, and 

 usefulness, and health of the horse. Some crib-biters are good goers, but 

 they probably would have possessed more endurance had they not acquired 

 this habit ; and it is a fact well established, that as soon as a horse begins to 

 become a crib-biter, he, in more than nine cases out of ten, begins to lose 

 condition. He is not, to the experienced eye, the horse he was before. 

 It may not lead on to absolute disease, or it may rarely do so to any con- 

 siderable degree ; but a horse that is deficient in condition, must, to that 

 extent, have his capability for extraordinary work diminished, although not 

 so as often to be apparent in ordinary work, and so far, the horse is un- 

 sound. Were there no other consideration, the wear of the front teeth, 

 and even the frequent breaking of them, make a horse old before his time, 

 and sometimes render it difficult or almost impossible for him to graze, 

 when the state of the animal or the convenience of the owner require that 

 he should be turned out. 



Curb constitutes unsoundness while it lasts, and perhaps while the 

 swelling remains, although the inflammation may have subsided ; for a horse 

 that has once thrown out a curb, is, for a while at least, very liable to do so 

 again on the slightest extra exertion, A horse, however, is not returnable 



