UNSOUNDNESS. 5G5 



"Which a horse with rinn^-bone has worked for many years without lame- 

 ness ;''yet, from the action of the foot, and the stress upon the part, the 

 inflammation and the formation of bone have such a tendency rapidly to 

 spread, that we must pronounce the sHghtest enlargement of the pasterns 

 or around the coronet, to be a cause of unsoundness. 



Sandcrack is manifestly unsoundness ; but it may occur with- 

 out the slightest warning, and no horse can be returned for one that is 

 sprung after purchase. Its usual cause is too great brittleness of the 

 crust of the hoof; but there is no infallible method of detecting this, or 

 the degree in which it must exist to constitute unsoundness. When the 

 horn round the bottom of the foot has chipped off so much that only 

 a skilful smith can fasten the shoe without pricking the horse, or even 

 when there is a tendency in the horn to chip and break off in a much 

 less degree than this, the horse may probably be returned as unsound, 

 for this brittleness of the crust is a disease of the part, or it is such an 

 altered structure of it as to interfere materially with the usefulness of the 

 animal. 



Spavin is unsoundness, whether the bony or the blood-spavin. In the 

 first, lameness is produced, at least at starting, in ninety-nine cases out of 

 a hundred, and there is enlargement of the hock, which rapidly spreads 

 with quick and hard work, although the horse may be capable of, and 

 may even get better at slow work. If there be no lameness, we would 

 yet reject a spavined horse, because the bony enlargement is too near a 

 very important and complicated joint, and on the least injury or sprain of 

 that joint, would spread over it, and materially interfere with its motion, j 



Blood-spavin is unsoundness, because, although it may not be pro- 

 ductive of lameness at slow work, the rapid and powerful action of the 

 hock in quicker motion will produce permanent, although not considerable 

 lameness, and which can scarcely ever be with certainty removed. 



Splent. — It depends entirely on the situation of the bony tumour on 

 the inside of the shank-bone, whether it is to be considered as unsound- 

 ness. If it is not in the neighbourhood of any joint, so as to interfere 

 with its action, and if it does not press upon any ligament or tendon, 

 it can be no cause of unsoundness, although it is often very unsightly. 

 It does not lessen the capability and value of the animal. Of this we 

 have treated at length at pages 241 and 350. 



Stringhalt. — This singular and very unpleasant action of the hind 

 leg cannot be termed unsoundness. It is an irregular communication of 

 nervous energy to some muscle of the thigh, observable when the horse 

 first comes from the stable, and gradually ceasing on exercise, and has 

 usually been found in those horses that have a more than common degree 

 of strength and endurance. 



Thickening of the Back Sinews. — Sufficient attention is not always 

 paid to the fineness of the legs of the horse. If the flexor tendons 

 have been sprained so as to produce considerable thickenino- of the 

 cellular substance in which their sheaths are enveloped, they^will lono- 

 afterwards, or perhaps ever after, be liable to sprain from causes by which 

 they would otherwise be scarcely affected. The continuance of any 

 considerable thickness around the sheaths of the tendons indicates pre- 

 vious and violent sprain. This very thickening will fetter the action of 

 the tendons, and after much quick work will, from the very friction, 

 occasionally renew the inflammation and the lameness ; therefore, such 

 a horse cannot be sound. It requires, however, a little discrimination to 

 distinguish this from the gumminess or roundness of leg, peculiar to 

 some breeds. There should be an evident difference between the injured 

 leg and the others. 



