DISEASES AND AILMENTS OF HORSES, ETC. 1 1 . 



defects and diseases affecting a liorse's legs arc 

 splints, spavins, and ringbone, swelling and strains 

 of the tendons. Broken knees are more the elfeot 

 of accidents than disease, but they undoubtedly 

 are defects. 



Ringbone is a disease mostly affecting the Ringbone, 

 pasteni joints of horses; it shows itself in an 

 enlargement of those parts, and ultimately causes 

 the whole leg, from the hoof to the knee, to appear 

 as one piece without any joint, having no bend or 

 flexion. This is necessarily unsoundness. Most 

 horses employed about railways become badly 

 affected with ringbone on the hind pasterns. The 

 heavy coaches and trucks they are required to 

 move, when making up a train, glide easily enough 

 when once set going, but it strains horses fearfully 

 to start them, and sooner or later destroys the 

 horse's motion of the hind legs. 



Splints. — A splint is a bony deposit or ex- Rpiints. 

 crescence on the leg of a horse, between the knee 

 and the pastern joint, sometimes on the splint 

 bones, sometimes on that bone called a horse's 

 cannon bone. A horse with a splint may or may 

 not be unsound, as the splint causes, or does not 

 cause, or is not Kkely to cause lameness. If this 

 bony deposit or lump is well forwai'd out of the 

 way of the tendons, and not near any joint, it will 

 not affect a horse's action, and is not unsoundness. 



L. I. 



