4 SOUNDNESS IN HORSES. 



founded on that of unsoundness by Baron Parke (Coates 

 V. Stejyhens, IStli Aug., 1838),* which is as follows: — "If 

 at the time of sale the horse has any disease which either 

 actually does diminish the natural usefulness of the 

 animal, so as to make him less capable of work of any de- 

 scription ; or which, in its ordinary progress, will diminish 

 the natural usefulness of the animal ; or if the horse has, 

 either from disease or accident, undergone any alteration 

 of structure, that either actually does at the time, or in its 

 ordinary effects will diminish the natural usefulness of 

 the horse, such a horse is unsound." 



A fault of conformation — *' curby hocks," " turned-out 

 toes," for instance — which does not unfit a horse for 

 present work, however much calculated it may be to 

 do so in the future, is not unsoundness. If, on the 

 contrary, it interferes with its present usefulness, it is 

 unsoundness. The following rulings will explain the 

 point. '* A defect in the form of the horse, which had 

 not occasioned lameness at the time of sale, although it 

 might render the animal more liable to become lame 

 at some future time, was not a breach of the warranty " 

 (Lord Chief Baron Abinger in Brown v. Elkington).^, 

 "The horse could not be considered unsound in law 

 merely from badness of shape. As long as he was 

 uninjured, he must be considered sound. When the 



* Moody & Robinson's Reports, vol. 2, p. 158. 

 t Meeson & Welsby's Reports, vol. 8, p. 132. 



