FEW HORSES SOUND. 13 



suppose (if they go to a meet of fox-hounds, and 

 see three or four score of hunters there, worth 

 from one to two hundred each) that these horses 

 are sound. If any one is young enough to conclude 

 they are, I will venture to tell him he is under 

 the influence of a very material error. There are 

 not, I am certain, one dozen among the lot de- 

 cidedly sound. That there cannot be much the 

 matter with their wind is doubtless the case, for 

 they could not go well if there was, with the ex- 

 ception of some being, perhaps, more or less 

 roarers or whistlers ; and that but few of them 

 are lame is probable, though many of them, pro- 

 bably, are always a little so the next morning 

 after a severe run, and even these would not be 

 sold under a high price. 



The generality of race horses are probably 

 sound, or nearly so, when starting for the Derby 

 (though this is by no means always the case) ; 

 but by the time they have been in training long 

 enough, and have run often enough to have esta- 

 blished their character, there are numbers of 

 them that no veterinary surgeon could pass as 

 sound horses, though then, perhaps, at their max- 

 imum price, not merely as stud horses, but as 

 race horses in full work. 



It is not improbable that a man may say, I begin 

 to believe that few horses that have done w^ork 

 are quite sound ; but a sound one I will have : I 



