EXAMINATION OF HORSES FOR SOUNDNESS. 
61 
significance of the symptoms which may here be displayed. 
Examine him in the full light. Place him squarely on his 
legs, devoid of every vestment save the halter. Look at him 
from every side, carrying in your mind whatever irregulari¬ 
ties you may detect. From this position there are many 
points which you will be enabled to note. You will measure 
with your eye how he stands upon his legs; their contour, 
and the conformation of important joints and sections ; in a 
minute you have seen if there exists a curb; if he knuckles at 
the fetlocks; if he “goes over ” at the knees; and many other 
points of value to be remembered when you begin to look 
into the details. The more experience one has the more he 
becomes impressed with the value of a system in examina¬ 
tions. Begin at one point and dissect the live body, with 
care and with system, using all of your special senses. Start¬ 
ing at the labial muscles, examine everything of importance 
about the head, mouth, age, pulse, intermaxillary space, eyes, 
ears, parotid gland, and temporal fossa. Passing down the neck, 
mark its junction with the thorax, the withers, the shoulders, 
the anterior extremities, the vertebral column, the chest, 
trunk; then do for the hind legs what you have done for the 
front ones,—the hips, the stifle, the hock, and so on to the 
foot. Examine the inguinal region, feeling the condition of 
the scrotum, and terminating with tail and anus. 
Your animal may have stood this examination with credit, 
and now you order him to be taken into the street. Though 
he may have shown no unsoundness at rest, he may develop 
it when thrown into action. He should be led by the halter, 
with possibly a foot of liberty, and handled by a hostler who 
knows his business. He should be trotted toward you, away 
from you, and in front of you, and displaying a regularity of 
action which only comes from the perfect working of every 
joint. If the defects be not in his gait, it may exist in his 
respiratory apparatus; or there may be abnormalities in his 
circulatory system. And we should not consider any exami¬ 
nation where palpable unsoundness has not been found com¬ 
plete until the horse has been cooled off, after having been 
well heated up, and again submitted to an examination in ac- 
