282 
OBSERVATIONS ON SOUNDNESS. 
return him. When I saw him the following day, he was still 
lame; but I was soon satisfied the splints had nothing to do 
with the lameness. I had the shoe taken off, and could find 
nothing wrong in the foot; but on pressing my thumb in the 
heel above the frog, the horse felt so much pain that he 
plunged from me with violence. On close examination, I 
found it proceeded from a very trifling crack in the heel. 
After a great deal of angry contention between the dealer 
and the gentleman, I persuaded them to consent to my 
keeping the horse three days, in which time I was to give 
him a dose of physic, and poultice the heelif he was sound 
at the end of that period, the gentleman w r as to keep him ; if 
he continued lame, he was to be returned. On the third day 
the horse was sound; but, instead of the party meeting as 
agreed, the gentleman sent his attorney to demand the 
purchase-money. Although I was perfectly satisfied as to 
the soundness of the horse, yet, to make assurance doubly 
sure, I advised the man to take the horse to Mr. Field, for 
his opinion. Mr. Field examined him with the greatest 
minuteness, and gave a written certificate that he was sound. 
The dealer then resisted the payment, and an action at law was 
the consequence. The horse remained in my stable. About six 
weeks after this, Mr. Sewell, accompanied by the purchaser, 
called to see the horse; when,after having examined and ridden 
him, Mr. Sewell gave it as his decided opinion, that, although 
the horse was not lame, he was unsound , because he had 
splints, which splints were (according to Mr. Sewell's notions,) 
precisely the same as nodes in the human subject." I have 
made the above quotation for the purpose of showing that 
from a slight cause a horse will fall lame, and be rejected as 
unsound, even by those who are most careful in their scrutiny. 
Sore-heels—I have found—are thought but little of by horse- 
keepers and their grooms ; they cannot imagine that so slight 
a sore as that sometimes met with in the heel can produce so 
much lameness ; the foot must be at fault they exclaim. We 
have great difficulty occasionally in persuading the owner to 
place the horse at rest for a few days; it is generally thought 
that a cracked heel should pass unnoticed, and anything by 
way of medical treatment, is quite uncalled for. If a horse has 
disease of this kind, he cannot, for the time being, be con¬ 
sidered truly sound ; but it would seem as though one were 
straining at a gna,t if he rejected the animal. These things can 
always be remedied, unless we have a crotchety purchaser to 
deal with who fancies he has bought at too high a figure; in 
that case he will avail himself of the excuse and shuffle out 
of the bargain. 
