70 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 
will be unsound. Happy will it be for the purchaser if 
he be in a position to let his purchase work a year on 
land and take him off the hard roads altogether. 
Toes out-turned or in-turned are not of themselves an 
unsoundness, but lead to it. 
Out-turned toes are frequently the effects of bey 
formed legs ; and we cannot be too careful in examining 
the inside of the fetlock joint for signs of “ brushing.” 
The fetlocks often receive such severe blows with this 
defect that the horse comes down. We often find 
thickening of the parts and scars. In such cases the 
thickening is not from simple hypertrophy, but from in- 
flammatory deposit set up by the blows, and can only be 
of a very limited extent for a horse to remain technically 
sound. If he has to go fast with a weight on his back, he 
is with such a conformation practically unsound. There 
is often a thickening about the sesamoid bones in such. 
cases. This is on account of the parts having more than. 
their share of weight, also to the internal lateral ligaments 
of the fetlock participating in the inflammation and 
becoming softened, and therefore relaxed. I have in- 
variably rejected horses with out-turned toes and enlarge- 
ments on the inside of the fetlock joints, and have never 
had cause to regret it, although a hcrse might be sound 
in every other respect, because I regard it as so very pro- 
bable that the internal lateral ligament may have Boone 
deteriorated. 
In-turned toes are very objectionable when the defect is 
very pronounced. The conformation which leads to it is 
