Il8 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



carefully to examine horses with suspected spavin 

 before they have had exercise, and as soon as they 

 have left the stable. 



Sometimes spavin continues to enlarge consider- 

 ably, and spreads over the lower wedge-bones 

 (Plate VII, fig. 8, e) in consequence of these being 

 nearest the original seat of the enlargement. These 

 bones are capable of a small degree of motion, and 

 participate in every action of the joint, but their chief 

 office is to prevent concussion. The principal motion 

 of the joint is in the tibia, d, and the astragalus, c, 

 and consequently stiffness more than lameness may 

 accompany spavin, even when the small bones of the 

 joint are affected. From which also it will be seen 

 that there is a manifest advantage in each of these 

 bones being provided with a separate ligament and 

 membrane, and thus, as it were, constituting so many 

 separate joints ; so that any of them may sustain 

 injury without its being communicated to the rest. It 

 is not uncommon for the bony deposit continuing to 

 enlarge, and embracing the second series of bones, 

 enveloping the larger wedge-bones, d, and extending 

 to the cube-bones on the other side ; and even then 

 the lameness may not be so great as to prove very 

 injurious, for this reason, that the motion of these 

 two joints, or rather parts of the joint, is small ; but 

 when it reaches to the union of the tibia, ^, and the 

 astragalus, ^, when the joint in which the principal 

 motion of the joint is affected, then the lameness is of 

 a very serious kind, and the horse may be considered 

 as no longer fit for use. 



Although spavin unfits horses for active employ- 

 ment, yet for farm purposes they need not be rejected, 

 especially by those who possess limited farms ; for 

 slow draught and other agricultural purposes they 



