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defect constitutes unsoundness. While the sole is undergoing 

 examination it will be advisable to look if there be any corns, but it 

 is not so easy to discover them with the shoes on. If the corns are 

 extensive, the foot convex, and the heels weak, the horse had better be 

 rejected. The utmost care is necessary in examining the foot, there 

 are so many causes of lameness that the inspection cannot be too 

 particularly carried out. A horse may be lamed by bad shoeing, 

 improper management, or some unknown cause, and though he may 

 not appear lame at the time of purchase, yet from the appearance of 

 the foot, lameness may reasonably be suspected. 



Sand-crack is a serious defect, especially if it runs longitudinally 

 from the coronet into the hoof, and is deep enough to affect the sen- 

 sitive parts of the foot. Sometimes the sand-crack is only trifling, 

 but its presence indicates an unnatural dryness of the horn, and ten- 

 dency to sand-crack, and if such a horse be purchased, proper 

 means should be at once employed to improve the state of the hoof. 



Foot-lameness is frequently removed for a time by a long 

 rest, or a run at grass. Horses that are foundered are fre- 

 quently much relieved, and sometimes apparently cured by the same 

 means, but in either case the lameness invariably returns when the 

 horse is put to work again, or kept in a stable. 



It should be remembered that there are few six-year old horses 

 whose feet are not more or less imperfect, and that a considerable 

 alteration in form may take place without causing lameness. 



In examining the fore-legs, it is necessary to notice if there be 

 any scar or wound, which generally arises from cutting ; when the 

 scar on the inside is large, or appears to have been recently 

 opened, while the surrounding parts are thickened and appear 

 swollen, it is a serious imperfection. The speedij cut, or cut on the 

 inside, just below the knee-joint, is a serious defect, which not 

 unfrequently causes a horse to fall while galloping or trotting. 



In examining the back sinews the hand should be passed down 

 the back part of the leg. If the tendon can be distinctly felt with 

 the suspensory ligament which lies just before it, and the tendon 

 feels clean and free from thickening, and if the leg, on a side view, 



