SOUNDNESS. 423 



might have been increased by this, the reply -was singular, but 

 decisive. " There is no proof that he would have got well if he 

 had not been hunted." This doctrine is confirmed by Parke, B., 

 in the first case cited in p. 420. 



Roaring, Wheezing, Whistling, High-blowing, and Grunt- 

 ing, being the result of alteration of structure, or disease in some 

 of the air-passages, and interfering with the perfect freedom of 

 breathing, especially when the horse is put on his speed, without 

 doubt constitute imsoundness. There are decisions to the contra- 

 ry, which are now universally admitted to be erroneous. Broken- 

 wuu) is still more decidedly unsoundness.* 



Crib-biting. — Although some learned judges have asserted 

 that crib-biting is simply a trick or bad habit, it must be regarded 

 ds unsoundness. This unnatural sucking in of the air must, to a 

 certain degree injure digestion. It must dispose to colic, and so 

 interfere with the strength, and usefulness, and health of the horse. 

 Some crib-biters are good goers, but they probably would have 

 possessed more endurance had they not acquired this habit ; and 

 it is a fact well established, that, as soon as a horse becomes a 

 crib-biter, he, in nine cases out of ten, loses condition. In its 

 very early stage it may be a mere trick — confirmed, it must have 

 produced morbid deterioration. The wear of the front teeth, and 

 the occasional breaking of them, make a horse old before his time, 

 and sometimes render it difficult or impossible for him to graze, 

 when the state of the animal or the convenience of the owner re 

 quires that he should be turned out.t 



* Jf^ote by Mr. Spooner. — Roaring, wheezing, and whistling may be con- 

 sidered as modifications of the same disease, viz., an obstruction to the pas- 

 sage of air to and from the lungs ; and as the nature and amount of this ob- 

 Btruction necessarily varies, so must the noise thereby produced, and which 

 is consequently expressed by the terms in question ; all, however, being de- 

 cidedly unsotindness. 



Grunting is the noise which many roarers will evince when suddenly 

 alarmed by a real or pretended blow. It is the common horse-dealer's 

 method of discovering a roarer, but by no means one that can be depended 

 on, as many moderate, roarers, particularly if they have lately become so, 

 win not grunt With regard to high-blowing, we by no means consider it 

 an unsoundness, understanding by this term, however, the noise, often very 

 considerable, which some horses make on being first excited, or put into 

 motion. This noise is produced by the false nostrils, which either possess 

 greater laxity than common, or else it is owing to the neivousness of the 

 horse. It begins at once if the horse is excited, and, instead of increasing 

 with exertion, like roaring, it diminishes or goes offi This is, or ought to 

 be, the proper test of soundness. 



Broken wind is of course decided unsoundness, and equally so is thick 

 wind, or quickened respiration, which often arisen from consolidation of a 



rortion of the lungs, and sometimes merely from thickening of the mem- 

 I ane of the air passages. 

 t Mife by Mr. Spooner. — Crib-biting has often been the subject of dispute 



