HOESES CUTTING. 191 



my notice, and the remedies that experience has 

 proved to me to be the most effectual. 



Cutting the legs arises from malformation, faulty 

 action, sometimes from unequal proportion, sometimes 

 from indolence ; and, per contra, I have known in- 

 stances where it has arisen from impetuosity. Horses 

 weak from illness are very apt to cut if used before 

 their strength is restored. It is almost unnecessary 

 to add, that tired horses very commonly cut or strike 

 their legs, though they do neither under other cir- 

 cumstances. 



No man, I should think, would purchase a horse 

 bearing evident marks of being in the habit of cut- 

 ting, or of having been so, unless he could feel certain 

 of being able to ascertain the cause of his having done 

 so, and that cause being of a nature not likely to 

 occur again ; but, even under such circumstances, he 

 stands in a very equivocal light, in our estimation, as 

 showing he has a propensity to a failing that a slight 

 deviation from ordinary circumstances may produce 

 again. In a general way, I should personally reject 

 a horse showing indications of cutting, however I 



