94 



WHAT DISEASES CONSTITUTE UNSOUNDNESS OR VICE. 



result of 

 short-sia;hted- 



Side-bones. 



Slipping the 

 collar. 



Spavin. 

 Speedy-cut. 



Splint. 



An unusual convexity in the formation of the cornea of 

 the eye will produce short-sightedness, and if, as_ is often 

 the case, there is thereby induced a habit of shying, such 

 shying is an unsoundness, although there is no disease, and 

 although it is the natural result of a congenital malforma- 

 tion of the eye (s). 



Side-bones is the same disease as ossification of the car- 

 tilages (t). A lameness is caused, which is removed by 

 absolute rest for a length of time, but quick work on a hard 

 road soon brings it back again. It is an unsoundness, 

 whether it produces lameness or not (u). 



Many horses are very clever at slipping the collar at 

 night ; they gorge themselves with food, and run the risk 

 of being kicked and lamed by other horses {v). As this 

 may be prevented either by carefully and accurately fixing 

 his collar, or by keeping him in a loose box, it cannot in 

 practice be considered a vice. 



Spavin is an unsoundness. See Blood and Bog-spavin {w), 

 and Bone-spavin {x). 



The inside of the leg, immediately under the knee, and 

 extending to the head of the inner splint-bone, is subject 

 to injury from what is termed the speedy-cut, which takes 

 place when a horse with high action, and in the fast trot, 

 violently strikes this part either with his hoof, or the edge 

 of his shoe. Sometimes a bony enlargement is the result ; 

 at others, great heat and tenderness ; and the pain from the 

 blow seems occasionally to be so great, that the horse drops 

 as if he were shot (y). Speedy -cid,]ik.e cutting (s), is the 

 consequence of defective shape ; and therefore, where a 

 horse is sound at the time of sale, lameness from a speedy- 

 cut immediately afterwards is no breach of a loarranty of 

 soundness. 



A splint, like a bone-spavin (a), is an excrescence or bony 

 deposit on the leg of a horse, and the danger in both cases 

 is the probability of their interfering with his action ; the 

 bone-spavin, by preventing the proper flexion of the joint, 

 and the splint, by pressing on the sinews of the leg. Lame- 

 ness is thus produced by each ; by bone-spavin nearly always, 



(s) Soliday v. Morgan, 28 L. J., 

 Q. B. 9. See ante, p. 63. 



(il) OsBification of the Cartilages, 

 ante, p. 87. 



(i«) Simpson T. Fotts, Carlisle 

 Spring Assize.?, 1847, cor. Eolfe, B. 



(») Lib. U. K. " The Horse," 344. 



[w) Blood and Bog-SpaTin, ante, 

 p. 68. 



(x) Bone-spavin, ante, p. 68. 



[y) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," 

 245. 



(z) Cutting, ante, p. 78. 



{a) Bone-Spavin, ante, p. 68. 



