BROKEN KNEES. 157 



to do with Ills liability to come down again than 

 breaking liis nose would have. There can be no 

 doubt but knees may be so deeply cut and bruised 

 by a fall as to injure the pliability of the joint, 

 and, in so severe a case, the horse probably icould 

 he unsafe ; but it is not a positive and certain re- 

 sult, even under such circumstances, for I have 

 seen horses with a considerable stiiFness of one 

 knee, that did not trip or blunder with that limb 

 more than the other : however, we do not con- 

 template purchasing such a one. I would only 

 advise a buyer not to reject a good horse loith 

 good action, if he wants one more for use than 

 show, because he had marked knees ; if, however, 

 he has such with questionable action, reject him 

 at once, much more on account of the action than 

 the knees. With broken knees and good action, 

 a horse may be, and most probably would be, 

 perfectly safe and pleasant to ride ; with bad 

 action, and no broken knees, he would be still 

 more probably neither safe nor pleasant to ride, 

 or even drive. 



Subjected, as most horses are, to all sorts of 

 roads and all sorts of riders, we need not be sur- 

 prised on finding that a horse has broken his knees ; 

 our surprise would be more justly called forth on 

 finding one that had not ; and when to bad roads 

 and bad riders we add over-fatigue, escaping 

 without, in stable phrase, " a hole in their stock 



