HEREDITARY UNSOUNDNESS 9 



Within certain limits, the practised eye of the 

 observant horseman can determine in sire or dam 

 the existence of these defects that are transmissi- 

 ble to the offspring, and predispose it to the de- 

 velopment of unsoundness. 



It is claimed by some authorities that some 

 horses and mares possess a peculiar habit of body, 

 an indefinable something about them which pre- 

 disposes them and also their progeny to the devel- 

 opment of some unsoundness. Such cases are 

 rare, however, and their supposed existence is 

 very frequently the result of the inability of an ob- 

 server to appreciate the existence of detectible 

 predisposing causes. If this indefinable some- 

 thing is the determining cause of predisposition 

 in some cases, then the only positive evidence of 

 its existence is the developed unsoundness. This 

 theory presupposes that none of the detectible 

 predisposing causes already mentioned exist in 

 sufficient degree in such cases, so that when sub- 

 jects of them are subjected to more than ordi- 

 narily exciting ones they would develop unsound- 

 ness unless the peculiar habit of body exists. It 

 it also an acknowledgment of the helplessness of 

 breeders in a considerable degree to prevent breed- 

 ing colts with an inherent tendency to unsound- 

 ness. No matter how capable and careful a 

 breeder is he will produce a certain percentage 

 of unsound stock, due to heredity, but with care 



