88 THE FOOT. 



itself would scarcely ever be deemed an objec- 

 tion, if it were not known that lameness is so 

 common an attendant upon it. For my own 

 part, I would not reject a horse, merely because 

 its feet were contracted, provided both were 

 equally so, and free from heat and tenderness ; 

 and the horse's action such as to assure me, 

 that no disease existed in the foot besides the 

 contraction : and therefore though I never pass 

 a horse without pointing it out, yet I endeavour, 

 at the same time, to explain its harmlessness. 

 But, where one foot is smaller than the other, 

 it alters the case : 1 am then certain, that there 

 either is, or has been, some long-continued 

 cause of lameness, existing either in the leg or 

 foot : and the discovery of that in many cases, 

 sufficiently warrants me in saying that the horse 

 is unsound, without taking any notice of the 

 smallness of the foot, which may here be only a 

 natural consequence of the animal's setting less 

 weight on it than the other. Contraction alone 

 is therefore not unsoundness. 



Thrush. Every man at all acquainted with 

 horses knows a thrush when he sees it ; and I 

 need not, therefore, give directions for discover- 

 ing It. It is a disease very frequently met 



