428 SOUNDNESS. 



the teeth are properly filed, or the soreness or other cause of thur 

 -mperfect chewmg removed. 



GtuiTTOB. is manifestly unsoundness. 



Ring-bone. — Although when the bony tumor 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-hone 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 pro- 

 nounce the slightest enlargement of the pasterns, or around the 

 coronet, to be a cause of unsoundness. 



Sand-crack is manifestly unsoundness. It may, however, occur 

 without the slightest warning, and no horse can he rejected on 

 account of a sand-crack that has sprung after purchase. Its usual 

 cause is too great brittleness of the crust of the hoof; but there is 

 no infallible method of detecting this, or the degree in which it 

 must exist in order to constitute unsoundness. When the horn 

 round the bottom of the foot has chipped off so much that only a 

 skilful smith can fasten the shoe without pricking the horse, or even 

 when there is a tendency in the horn to chip and break in a much 

 less degree than this, the horse is unsound, for the brittleness of 

 the crust is a disease of the part, or it is such an altered structure 

 of it as to interfere materially with the usefulness of the animal. 



Spavin. — Bone spavin, comprehending in its largest sense every 

 bony tumor on the hock, is not necessarily unsoundness. If the 

 tumor affects in the slightest degree the action of the horse, it is 

 unsoundness ; — even if it does not, it is seldom safe to pronounce 

 it otherwise than unsoundness. But it may possibly be (like splint 

 in the fore-leg) so situated as to have no tendency to affect the ac- 

 tion. A veterinary surgeon consulted on the purchase will not 

 always reject a horse because of such a tumor. His evidence on 

 a question of soundness will depend on the facts. The situation 

 and history of the tumor may be such as to enable him to give a 

 decisive opinion in a horse going sound, but not often. 



Bog or Blood Spavin is unsoundness, because, although it may 

 not be productive of lameness at slow work, the rapid and power- 

 ful action of the hock in quicker motion will produce permanent, 

 yet perhaps not considerable lameness, which can scarcely evei 

 be with certainty removed.* 



Splint. — It depends entirely on the situation of the bony tumor 

 on the shank-bone, whether it is to be considered as unsoundness. 

 If it is not in the neighborhood of any joint, so as to interfere with 



* Note by Mr. Spooner. — Mood-Spavin is certainly unsoundness, unless 

 extremely slight, although, in the majority of cases, it does not caus* 

 lameness. 



