128 
SPAVIN. 
under examination hard ridden or driven, or otherwise exercised 
until he is in a profuse sweat, and afterwards kept standing tied up 
in a stall until he is cold and stiff in his joints, and then trotted out 
again. A knowing vendor of a spavined horse would take care to 
“ warm” him by a good ride or drive before he took him to shew 
to the future purchaser ; and then, while under examination, by 
dint of whip and spur, and management in the bridle hand, he 
might pass his merchandize off (to an unwary buyer) as sound. 
Indeed, so much is sweating work, or exercise approaching thereto, 
apt to prove a foil to shewing lameness, that one is almost inclined 
to say no horse ought to be examined under such circumstances, 
certainly no horse suspected of spavin. The time of all others that 
a spavined horse will be apt to manifest his lameness will be the 
day following after a hard day’s work ; and when he makes his first 
egress from the stable in the morning is the critical period for ex- 
amination. 
Horses that go limpingly lame from spavin, lame at all times, 
and lamer still when they work, often experience pain in the seat 
of disease to a degree which, in the language of Solleysell, causes 
them “to pine away, especially about the flanks.” They have 
probably been blistered, and fired, and setoned ; have had their 
hocks frightfully scarred, and yet are lame to that degree that they 
are unable to do more than gingerly put the toe of the foot of the 
spavined limb to the ground, and so, painfully, hobble along ; and 
although they may still maintain their appetite, yet are they low 
in condition, tucked up in their flanks, evidently, in short, “ pining 
away.” Such pitiable subjects, it is true, may be kept at work ; 
the little, however, they can do when put to any thing requiring 
strength of action or pull, together with the wretched condition 
they are generally in, is a fact so well known to coach and omni- 
bus proprietors, and horse-keepers in general, that at the horse 
auctions such animals fetch little or nothing. Even for agricul- 
tural work such labourers as these prove of but little worth. Now 
and then, however, it happens that the spavined horse, although 
treatment has failed to render him sound, continues in respect to 
his disease in that state in which he appears to suffer no local pain 
at all while at rest, and but little while at work, and so is able 
to do a considerable amount of some kinds of labour, lasting 
in it perhaps for years. Still, such a horse is more likely than 
another to receive injuries, to experience aggravation or relapse of 
■disease in his already diseased hock ; and under such return or 
augmentation of ailment, unless great care be taken, and fre- 
quently with all the care we can take, may and will fail 
altogether. 
Spavins exist which occasion no Lameness. How this 
