18 THE STUD. 



impression might very probably be the result ; for 

 such persons will entertain the erroneous idea 

 that a man cannot have an unsound horse without 

 knowing it. Xow I have no hesitation in saying, 

 that a man may have had a horse and ridden 

 him for twelve months, conceiving him to be 

 sound, and yet, on producing the animal to un- 

 dergo professional examination, he may get the 

 cheering information that he has defective vision, 

 defective wind, and is lame. Some readers may 

 think such a catastrophe as overdrawn; or, per- 

 haps, impossible. If they do, let them ask a 

 veterinary surgeon ; — I suspect that he would not 

 only give his opinion on the possibility of such a 

 case, but could narrate instances of its occurrence 

 (or something very like it). 



I do not attempt to say, that such an occur- 

 rence as I have specified would be likely to take 

 place with a good judge of a horse : but it is by 

 no means an uncommon, but, on the contrary, 

 a very common, circumstance, that such a man 

 may w^arrant a horse sound, conceive him to be 

 so, and have good grounds for his opinion, even 

 by a fair trial of him ; and yet, when this horse 

 comes to be looked at by a professional eye, he 

 may be rejected as " unsound," that is, " not 

 sound." To many persons these two terms may 

 appear perfectly synonymous ; and so, in strict 

 fact, they are : but though a professional man, or 



