SOUND OR UNSOUND ? 11 



nnsoimd, unless he is dot-and-go-one — works his 

 flanks like the drone of a bagpipe — or blows and 

 roars like a blacksmith's bellows ; while some are 

 so fastidious as to consider a horse as next to 

 valueless because he may have a corn that he 

 never feels, or a thrush for which he is not, nor 

 likelv to be, one sovereisjn the worse. 



So far as relates to such hypercritical deciders 

 on soundness, I will venture to say that, if they 

 brought me twenty reported sound horses in suc- 

 cession, I would find a something in all of those 

 produced that would induce such persons to reject 

 them, though, perhaps, not one among the lot had 

 any thing about him of material consequence. To 

 say the least, I will venture to assert that nine- 

 tenths of the horses now in daily use are more or 

 less unsound. I make no reservation as to the 

 description of horse, his occupation, or what he 

 may be worth. I scarcely ever had, indeed scarcely 

 ever knew, a horse that had been used, and tried 

 sufficiently to prove him a good one, that was in 

 every particular unequivocally sound. I make 

 no doubt but there are thousands of owners of 

 horses who will at once say I am wrong in this 

 assertion, and would be ready to produce their 

 own horses as undeniable proofs, whereby to 

 back their opinion and refute mine. Xow I 

 will further venture to say, for the comfort of 

 such gentlemen, that, on producing these very 



