GROGGY LAMENESS. 
483 
this, be it noted, is comparatively rare. When lameness attacks 
the sound foot while the lame foot continues unrestored, the horse 
being now lame from navicularthritis in both feet, we may consi- 
der that the foundation has been laid for that deplorable state we 
call 
Grogginess or Groggy Lameness. 
In adopting which vulgar but significant appellations as the 
heading of this division of my subject, I, with Mr. Turner, regard 
them as synonyms of navicularthritis, with this additional mean- 
ing, — that, to constitute grogginess , the lameness from navicular- 
thritis or its sequelce must be present in both fore feet, in place of 
but one. There can be no doubt but that the epithet “groggy” — 
comparatively a modern one — was suggested by the unsteady, 
rolling, unsafe action of the lame horse being compared to that of 
a drunken man ; and though in former days such was commonly 
connected with knuckling-over of the fore fetlock joints, and the 
tottering standing which such an insecure posture necessarily pro- 
duces, yet have the pathological researches of later times demon- 
strated that veritable groggy lameness has its origin in navicular- 
thritis and its consequences. V/hen horses from long or excessive 
work are what is called “shook” in their joints, such will add to 
their unsteadiness and want of stability, or, it is possible, may of 
itself produce an action that might be mistaken for “groggy.” 
Indeed, the loss of elasticity which the limbs of very old horses in 
the course of nature sustain, combined with the effects on them of 
excessive strain and work, produce a stilty, concussive, bone- 
shaking action of them, which, it appears to me, was what old 
writers on farriery meant to denote by the denomination of “ shoul- 
der-shotten ;” but which is certainly not — has, in fact, no connec- 
tion whatever with — what we call grogginess. I have myself 
seen horses, young in years and perfectly fresh on their le^s, and 
sound in their feet, that have, after a month or two of what is 
called “shoulder-in” work in a riding-school, exhibited all the 
symptoms of the so-called “ shoulder-shotten” or “shooken;” cases 
which at first I did not understand, but whose nature I afterwards 
came fully to comprehend, and at the same time learnt that the 
simple remedy for their restoration to soundness was withdrawal 
of them from such exercises, or, rather, giving them lengthened 
repose. 
So that “grogginess” had better have its meaning limited to the 
lameness consequent on the actual presence of navicularthritis, or 
some one or other of its sequelce , simultaneously in both fore feet ; 
and then, so understood, becomes plainly distinguishable both from 
founder and shoulder-shook or “ shotten :” it being now agreed 
