UNSOUNDNESS. 4l!fl 



porary it may be, or however obscure, there must be disease which lessens 

 the utility of the horse, and renders him unsound for the time. So says 

 common sense, but there are contradictory decisions on the ease. "Ahorse 

 labouring under a temporary injury or hurt, which is capable of being speedily 

 cured or removed, is not, according to Chief Justice Byre, an unsound horse ; 

 and where a warranty is made that such a horse is sound, it is made without 

 any view to such an injury ; nor is a horse so circumstanced within the mean- 

 ing of the warranty. To vitiate the warranty, the injury the horse had 

 sustained, or the malady under which he laboured, ought to be of a permanent 

 nature, and not such as may arise from a temporary injury or accident." * 



On the contrary, Lord Ellenborough says : " I have always held, and now 

 hold, that a warranty of soundness is broken, if the animal at the time of sale 

 has any infirmity upon him which renders him less fit for present service. It is 

 not necessary that the disorder should be permanent or incurable. While a 

 horse has a cough he is unsound, although it may either be temporary or may 

 prove mortal. The horse in question having been lame at the time of sale 

 when he was warranted to be sound, his condition subsequently is no defence 

 to the action t." The decisions of Mr. Baron Parke, already referred to con- 

 firm this doctrine. 



Neurotomy. — A question has arisen how far a horse that has undergone the 

 operation of the division of the nerve of the leg (see p. 156), and has recovered 

 from the lameness with which he was before affected, and stands his work well 

 may be considered to be sound. Chief Justice Best held such a horse to be 

 unsound, and in our opinion there cannot be a doubt about the matter. The 

 operation of neurotomy does not remove the disease causing the lameness, but 

 only the sensation of pain. A horse on whom this operation has been per- 

 formed may be improved by it — may cease to be lame — may go well for many 

 years ; but there is no certainty of this, and he is unsound, within our defini- 

 tion, unless nature gave the nerve for no useful purpose. 



Ossification op the lateral cartilages constitutes unsoundness, as 

 interfering with the natural expansion of the foot, and, in horses of quick work, 

 almost invariably producing lameness. 



Pumiced-foot. — When the union between the horny and sensible lamina?, 

 or little plates of the foot (see p. 383), is weakened, and the coffin-bone is let 

 down, and presses upon the sole, and the sole yields to this unnatural weight, 

 and becomes rounded, and is brought in contact with the ground, and is bruised 

 and injured, that horse must be unsound, and unsound for ever, because there 

 arc no means by which we can raise the coffin-bone again into its place. 



Quidding. — If the mastication of the food gives pain to the animal, in con- 

 sequence of soreness of the mouth or throat, he will drop it before it is perfectly 

 chewed. This, as an indication of disease, constitutes unsoundness. Quidding 

 sometimes arises from irregularity in the teeth, which wound the cheek 

 with their sharp edges; or a protruding tooth renders it impossible for the horse 

 to close his jaws so as to chew his food thoroughly. Quidding is unsoundness 

 for the time j but the unsoundness will cease when the teeth are properly filed, 

 or the soreness or other cause of this imperfect chewing removed. 



Quittor is manifestly unsoundness. 



Ring-bone. — Although when the bony tumour is small, and on one side 

 only, there is little or no lameness — and there are a few instances in which a 

 horse with ring-bone has worked for many years without its return — yet from 

 the action of the foot, and the stress upon the part, the inflammation and the 

 formation of bone may acquire a tendency to spread so rapidly, that we must 



* 2 Espin. Kep. 673, Garment v. Barn. t i Campbell, 251 Elton v Brogden. 



