LAMENESS. 
363 
longeing , the lateral or passaging, or running or riding the animal 
at a sharp trot for a short distance, and then as suddenly as possible 
arresting him in his course, and the same instant turning him 
sharply round upon his hind quarters, may each or all of them in 
turn be put into practice, and, with the foregoing reservation, taken 
as tests of the presence of lameness. 
The sudden arrest of the trot, and the simultaneous turning about 
upon the hind limbs as upon a pivot, especially tend to elicit lame- 
ness in those limbs : not unfrequently a horse will hardly shew 
his lameness behind until he comes to be suddenly arrested, and 
then he instantly drops his croup upon the sound side. 
The Error most apt to be committed in determining 
THE LAME Limb, and one that now and then, without proper at- 
tention, will be committed even by professional persons, and there- 
fore one against falling into which it behoves us all to be upon our 
guard, is pronouncing lameness to be in a fore leg when it is in the 
reverse hind, or in a hind when it is in the reverse fore limb. 
Simply observing upon which side or limb a lame horse drops will 
point out to us whether his lameness exist in the off or the near 
leg ; such, however, is the sympathetic effect of this dropping or 
lurch of the body upon the reverse hind or reverse fore limb to 
that of which the animal goes lame, arising from the synchronous 
action of these limbs in the trot, that, without attention to where- 
abouts the dropping is especially taking place, we shall be apt to 
assign a false locality to the lameness. For example, if lame in a 
fore limb the animal’s head will rise and fall, or “ nod,” as he limps 
along ; whereas, when the lameness is seated in a hind limb, the 
croup will be the part which will manifest these risings and fall- 
ings, or “ droppings.” For the young — very often for the more 
experienced — practitioner, it is a good rule to withhold any opinion 
about the lameness until the horse has been run both from and to 
the observer ; the return trot serving either to confirm the impres- 
sion made in his mind by the first run, or else to shew him that 
such notion — fortunately for him unexpressed — was an erroneous 
one. Should any doubt continue after the return trot, the run 
should be repeated, it being far better for the examiner to bear the 
imputation of slowness of judgment, or of indecision even, than to 
risk being detected in so flagrant and serious an error as that of 
hitting upon a sound limb for the lame one. 
The Seat of Lameness, by which is meant the situation of 
the disease, injury, or deformity giving rise to it, is the inquiry 
called for as soon as the determination of the lame limb is settled ; 
and a most important inquiry it is, though one not in every 
instance pursued with that success and satisfactoriness that could 
be desired. 
