422 SOUNDNESS RULES FOR PURCHASE. 



the horse does not step short and go as if the foot were tender, 

 and that there is not the slightest trace of lameness. Unless 

 these circumstances, or some of them, are detected, a horse must 

 not be pronounced to be unsound because his feet are contracted ; 

 for many horses with strangely contracted feet do not suffer at 

 all in their action. A special warranty, however, should be 

 required where the feet are at all contracted. 



Corns manifestly constitute unsoundness. The portion of the 

 foot in which bad corns are situated will not bear the ordinary 

 pressure of the shoe ; and accidental additional pressure from the 

 growing down of the horn, or the introduction of dirt or gravel, 

 wiU cause serious lameness. They render it necessary to wear 

 a thick and heavy shoe, or a bar-shoe, in order to protect the 

 weakened and diseased part ; and they are very seldom radically 

 cured. There may be, however, and frequently is, a difference 

 of opinion as to the actual existence or character of the corn. 

 They are sometimes, too, so slight that they do not diminish the 

 value of the horse, and vidll disappear on the horse being shod 

 with ordinary skill and care, even without any alteration in the 

 shoe. 



Cough. — This is a disease, and consequently unsoundness. 

 However slight may be its degree, and of whatever short stand- 

 ing it may be, although it may sometimes scarcely seem to inter- 

 fere with the usefulness of the horse, yet a change of stabling 

 or slight exposure to wet and cold, or -the least over-exertion, 

 may, at other times, cause it to degenerate into many dangerous 

 complaints. A horse, therefore, should never be purchased with 

 a cough upon him, without a special warranty ; or if-^-the 

 cough not being observed — he is purchased under a general war- 

 ranty, that warranty is thereby broken. It is not law, that a 

 horse may be returned on breach of the warranty. The seller 

 is not bound to take him back, unless he has contracted so to do ; 

 but he is liable to damages. Lord Ellenborough has completely 

 decided this matter. " I have always held," said he, " that a 

 warranty of soundness is broken, if the animal, at the time of 

 sale, had any infirmity upon him that rendered him -less fit for 

 present service. It is not necessary that the disorder should bo 

 permanent or incurable. While he has a cough, he is unsound, 

 although that may either be temporary or prove mortal." 



In deciding on another case, the same judge said, " I have al- 

 ways held it that a cough is a breach of the warranty. On that 

 understanding I have always acted, and think it quite clear." It 

 was argued on the other hand that two-thirds of the horses in 

 London had coughs, yet stiU the judge maintained that the cough 

 was a breach of warranty. When it was farther argued that the 

 horse had been hunted the day after the purchase, and the cough 



