CHAPTER III 

 Sound and Unsound Horses 



So much importance is attached to what is 

 technicallj called soundness in a horse, and the 

 value of an animal is so remarkably depreciated 

 if it fails to come up to the somewhat high 

 standard expected by the average buyer, that a 

 chapter devoted to the subject may not be out of 

 place. 



First of all, unsoundness is usually defined as 

 the disease or alteration of structure, which ren- 

 ders, or will render, a horse less capable of per- 

 forming the work required of it. This definition 

 is not very satisfactory, however, because, as we 

 shall show, many horses are technically unsound, 

 yet are perfectly capable of doing all the work 

 required of them for a great number of years. It 

 is possible that too much stress is sometimes laid 

 upon soundness. For instance, a case may be 

 cited in which the buyers of a cob insisted upon 

 absolute soundness, and rejected a number of 

 useful, mature animals, each of which was tech- 



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