26 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 
part, I have found it best to explain very fully to the 
purchaser, in writing by preference, the whole matter. 
It is clear that you can do nothing else ; as a horse that 
has had an acute attack of inflammation in any vital or 
essential organ cannot be sound for the reason I have 
named ; yet you may not be able to say where and how 
the horse is unsound. You know how subject some 
horses are to periodic attacks of colic, and what a 
common remedy bleeding is for it, and how anxious 
owners are to get rid of such horses, for fear of their 
having a fatal attack. So that an unmistakable mark of 
a horse’s having been bled from the neck is not to be 
passed over, although the jugular vein may be perfect. 
You next proceed to the shoulder, and look for 
injuries to the skin caused by the collar; for atrophy of 
the muscles occupying the spaces in front and behind 
the spine of the scapula; and for evidences of injuries 
from accident or surgical remedies about the point of the 
shoulder. With regard to “collar marks,” as they are 
called, we are too apt to overlook them, or pass over 
them lightly. About five years ago I was much annoyed 
with a case. One market day, a gentleman brought 
into Leeds for my inspection an aged horse that had 
carried his owner with hounds, to my own knowledge, 
for some years. The gentleman was selling this horse 
to one of my best clients. I noticed the collar marks, 
which I took as little notice of as of the marks on his 
fore legs, made by timber and stone walls. The horse 
was passed as practically sound, and I assure you that 
