LEGS AND FEET. 107 



incipient state, by the clatter of tae hoofs. It may, how- 

 ever, alwc^ys be detected by the rider suddenly pulling 

 him up, after a long, sharp gallop, and listening with hia 

 ear inclined forward and downward, and brought close to 

 tlie windpipe; or, if he be not readily able to accomplish 

 this position while mounted, which he may not be able to 

 Jo if not a practised rider, by dismounting quickly and 

 listening with his ear applied to the neck, near its junction 

 with the head. If the whistling be bad it will be heard 

 even without this precaution, and will continue for some 

 seconds, or even minutes, after the motion of the animal 

 has ceased ; but this method of auscultation will detect it 

 in its smallest and most incipient stage. There is no point 

 in which a tyro in horse purchasing is so likely to be de- 

 ceived as in the wind. It requires, therefore, the utmost 

 precaution to detect it ; and the most positive determina- 

 tion when it is detected, even in the slightest modification, 

 to reject the animal, however otherwise irreproachable. 



DEFECTS TO BE DETECTED IN THE LEGS AND FEET. 



We now come to the diseases and affections, or mal- 

 formations, of the legs and feet, which are, of course, 

 most fatal of all to the horse, for any useful purpose 

 whatever ; inasmuch as an animal, whose only utility lies 

 in his powers of locomotion, if deprived or seriously 

 curtailed of those very powers, is nearly valueless ; quite 

 so, unless he be an entire horse or a mare capable of pro- 

 pagating its species, and even then of little worth, since 

 DO one witli judgment cares to propagate animals 'ikely to 

 inlierit lameness in their blood. 



It is not necessary, of course, to speak of horses which 

 are absolutely lame at the moment when they are offered 

 for sale, since such cripples cannot avoid showing the ail- 

 ment in their gait the moment they are put in motion, 



