44 HINTS TO HOESEMEN ; OE, 



ill-placed legs ; that the spavin is not the to-be-ex- 

 pected result of ill-formed hocks, and that the feet 

 have not been naturally of a texture to bode con- 

 traction, sand-crack, or fever. A blind mare, or a 

 broken-winded one, I certainly would not buy to 

 breed from ; not from thinking that because a mare 

 had gone blind, that it fully indicates her stock would 

 do the same ; but I would reject her because (unless, 

 indeed, a flash of lightning had produced it) no one 

 can tell how far a predisposition to weak or inflam- 

 matory eyes may have existed ; but, further still, I 

 should hold the objection, that many, indeed most 

 persons, would decline purchasing the produce of a 

 blind dam. I should say nearly the same of a broken- 

 winded one ; for the idea of some ignorant persons, 

 who I have heard aver it as a truth, " that he or she 

 went broken-winded from having a bucket of cold 

 water given while in a state of perspiration," or, as 

 they would more probably term it, " while hot,*' is 

 sheer nonsense — the animal would far more likely 

 be griped hj it. That such injudicious treatment 

 might produce disease that eventually ended in 



