94 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 
to do with; and I remarked his fine open feet and .. 
perfect frogs to the farmer who was selling him. I 
thought I had never seen two such beautiful feet. On 
arriving at Halifax, I heard on good authority that the 
gentleman’s head groom struck the horse on the ribs, 
and exclaimed, ‘‘ What’s ’e passed sich a flat-sided brute 
as this for?” About a month, or less, afterwards, I was 
sent for to see the horse, and found him a complete»: 
wreck. He had thrushes on both fore feet, which had 
both contracted (collapsed) at the heels, a large bone 
spavin on the off-side hock, a large splint on his near 
fore leg; he was “hide-bound,” had a staring coat, 
and I could count his ribs ten yards off. All this 
change in less than a month. He cost one hundred 
and fifty pounds; and was sent in about a fortnight 
afterwards to Tattersall’s, and sold for thirty-three guineas. 
I was assured that a thrush was found immediately upon 
his arrival at Halifax; but be this as it may, what a 
frightful constitutional change he had undergone in five 
weeks or less. 
Suppose again that you really have thrush from local 
causes; the discharge is so acrid that it has a great 
tendency to destroy the horny frog—a thing of no mean 
importance. 
Having now gone through a thorough review of the 
phalanges, including the foot, I beg to refer you to the 
place at which we began to digress. 
You will remember we were examining the front of 
the leg, and had got down to the fetlock joint. Grasp 
