14 
ON SOUNDNESS. 
law is brought ; the buyer may or may not get a verdict ; 
one thing is certain, a great deal of money is spent ; the two 
professional gentlemen figure in court : not very creditably 
in the eyes of the public ; and the horse remains sound to 
the end of the chapter. 
The second case I will select is a corn case ; very similar 
to Mr. Hawthorn’s. A horse was sold for fifty guineas, by 
a most respectable yeoman, a client of mine, to a gentleman, 
and by him taken home and ridden, quite sound and much 
to his satisfaction, for about a week, when he required 
shoeing. For this purpose he was taken to the forge of an 
eminent veterinary surgeon in this county, whose smith, in 
preparing the horse’s fore feet, discovered slight corns. He 
told his master, and his master told the new purchaser that 
he considered him unsound, and recommended him to write 
to my friend. He did so, and inclosed a certificate to that 
effect. Some correspondence took place, which resulted in 
the matter being referred to us two veterinary surgeons. We 
met. The horse was examined, and it is true he had a slight 
corn in each fore foot ; unquestionably brought about by 
neglected country shoeing. His feet were capitally shaped, 
and he trotted on the stones quite free from any lameness 
or tenderness whatever. We talked the case over, but could 
not agree as to the liability of my client taking back. I con- 
sidered the ailment so slight that it would not be at all likely 
to interfere with him, and he contended that the horse was 
legally speaking unsound ; but at the same time admitting, 
in all probability that in two or three shoeings the corns 
might be got rid of. We could come to no arrangement. 
Our employers, therefore, took the matter out of our hands, 
and settled it between themselves, like sensible men. The 
horse was kept at, I believe, the original price, and the 
expenses of an eighty mile journey for myself was paid 
me between them. We veterinary surgeons parted good 
friends, but each adhered to his opinion, and believed him- 
self correct. 
A third instance : A chestnut thoroughbred mare was pur- 
chased by a noble lord, of a friend of his, a baronet ; both 
these officers in the regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry to which 
I am attached. A few days after she was taken home, the 
stud groom discovered that the mare had a spavin. I was sent 
for to meet the gentlemen, and to give an opinion. I exa- 
mined her, and true enough she had one of those enlarge- 
ments called by dealers a “ Jack,” on, I think, the near 
hock. She ran perfectly sound, and with a considerable 
degree of freedom of action of the hocks. The baronet 
