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WHAT IS SPAVIN ? 
geography, except that it’s somewhere about the hock. 
Some say it’s a lameness, others say it is not ; all that I can 
make out with certainty is, that it is one of those indefinite 
terms which horsemen have invented to designate hock 
lameness, or deformity, or either, or neither, to hide their 
ignorance of its nature, if there is, or they fancy there is, 
anything the matter ; or, what is of more importance, they 
want to depreciate the value of an animal they are purchasing. 
If a horse is big boned, has large angular bony hocks, — 
“ Ha ! he’s spavined,” cries out Sisiphus ; well, but what is 
spavin ? all that he can tell you is, that it’s a — kind -of a — 
you see — sort of a — you know what I mean^— a spavin ! 
Where is it situated ? Oh ! in the hock, he believes. What 
part ? he don’t exactly know, Is it outside or inside ; before 
or behind the joint ? Devil a bit can he tell you ; nor does 
he know whether it is an affection of the bones, cartilages, 
ligaments, synovial membrane, bursae mucosae, or veins. I 
have seen every part pointed out as its seat, — Capital 
mystery ! What a chasm this little word covers in the 
countenance of the farrier, horseman, or secular groom ! 
If your horse is lame behind, (possibly from bad training, 
or shoeing) and it isn’t curb, or sandcrack, or strained flexors, 
ask your farrier what is the matter, and he’ll tell you plump, 
he’s spavined, — and immediately proceed to fire or blister, 
as in that case is made and provided, and when he is recovered 
boast what a cure he made. 
If you don’t like torments here’s an invaluable secret. 
A 
Catacidal Charm 
to cure a 
Spavin or a Curb. 
Another cocksure ' 
Remedy or plea- 
sant Pastime for 
Christians. 
Take a ram cat, and skin him alive, and then tie the 
■warm skin on the hock of the horse; if one does not suc- 
ceed proceed to a second catastrophe. 
Get a fine fat hen, or a cock, and cut open his or her 
■belly, and tie him or her on the hock of the horse, all 
alive, alive o ! 
f To prevent a swelling from running into a spavin, shave 
A third, j away the hair about it, and anoint it for three days with 
A sweet Balsam, <( natural balsam, and then lay on a charge, made of 3 ounces 
Utile et dulce. | of oil of roses, an ounce of bole, half an ounce of wheat flour, 
L.and the white of an egg — to sweeten it I guess. 
“ But if these will not do the deed, 
To burning with hot irons proceed. 
For when your case can be no worse, 
The desp’rat’st is the wisest course.” 
Some diseases, as strangles and spavin, “ breed” and it is 
a question worthy of the consideration of sportsmen, agri- 
cultural associations, &c., how far such diseases may be 
improved by judicious crossing ; such as a cross between a 
