BUYING A HORSE 47 



is manifest alteration of structure here, and yet the 

 animal is apparently sound in action, the purchaser should 

 bear in mind that the soundness is often the effect of rest ; 

 and should the animal be again put to work, he will 

 become lame. Bear in mind, in such case, you cannot 

 return him, for no man in his senses would give a special 

 warranty against it. 



Sjolints. — These, if large, are visible in the deviation of 

 the outline of the leg ; if small, the hand discovers them. 



Every excrescence on the cannon bone, in horseman^s 

 language, is termed a splint. The true splint is, in fact, a 

 conversion into bone of a part of the cartilage connecting 

 the large and small metacarpal bones. The inflammation is 

 set up by concussion or strain. Horses are lame from them 

 while there is inflammation in the cartilage, and the tumour 

 is growing and distending the membrane covering the bone 

 and cartilage. But when the tumour is formed, the inflam- 

 mation has subsided, and the periosteum has accommodated 

 itself to the enlargement, the horse is no longer lame, nor 

 more likely to become lame from that splint than one 

 without ; the same causes that produced the first may 

 produce a second. 



The splint, if so large as to interfere with action, render- 

 ing the horse liable to strike, is objectionable, or so near 

 the knee or ligaments as to interfere with their freedom 

 of action ; otherwise it is of little consequence, beyond 

 the blemish destroying the line of beauty. The worst 

 splints are those discernible only by the lameness they 

 produce. 



Any marks of firing or blistering should make the 

 purchaser cautious, and endeaver to ascertain the cause of 

 the treatment ; after blistering, the hair is sometimes a 

 shade different in the colour, and stares a little shorter 

 and bristly, and wants the natural gloss. 



The fetlock joint, from being the principal seat of motion 

 below the knee, and from its complicated structure, is 

 particularly subject to injuries. The fetlocks should be 

 subjected to the strictest examination for enlargements, 

 which are best ascertained by carefully comparing them 

 with each other, as any difference in size is indicative of 

 strained or even ruptured ligaments, and consequently 

 permanent weakness of that important part. 



If the injury be recent, there probably will be heat and 



