100 LAMENESS. 



the groom thinks it is a disease, and calls it 

 blood spavin. Dissection, however, and measure- 

 ment of the vein, show no trace of disease, 

 neither, when filled with wax in the dead sub- 

 ject, does it appear at all larger, than where 

 neither bog- nor blood spavin had existed. 



Below the hock joint, the leg- should be exam- 

 ined for strains, the fetlock for enlargement, 

 windgalls, and cutting, the pastern for ringbone, 

 the foot for side bones and thrushes. The other 

 diseases mentioned as belonging to the foreleg 

 and foot, are rarely, and some of them never, 

 seen in the hind foot. 



Suppose the purchaser to have proceeded 

 thus far in his examination, he will next have 

 the horse trotted upon the stones, to see that 

 he is not lame, either before or behind. I need 

 not attempt to give directions for discovering 

 lameness, for no man should, unaided, buy a 

 horse, if his knowledge of that animal be too 

 scanty to enable him to discover it himself. I 

 may observe, however, that, as lameness in the 

 forefeet or legs is shown by the motion of the 

 animal's head, care must be taken that the 

 seller do not hide this symptom by holding the 

 horse's head so firmly, as to prevent its up and 



