ARMY VETERINARY REPORTS. 
463 
cent, of all the horses diseased should have this affection of the 
fore feet affords, to my mind, an instructive commentary on the 
defects of the inspection. 
First, let me give the ages of these 64 horses, and then make 
my deductions : 
No. Yrs. 
old. 
No. 
Yrs. old. 
No. 
Yrs. old. 
6. 
. . 6 
2.... 
.11 
1. 
.16 
7 . 
.. 7 
6_ 
.12 
1. 
. 17 
12. 
. . 8 
3. . . . 
.13 
2. 
.18 
5. 
.. 9 
2_ 
.14 
5. 
.20 
2. 
...10 
3. .. . 
.15 
1. 
.25 
Unobserved .. . . 
.. 6 
Just 50 per cent, of the cases had not passed the tenth year! 
Now most cavalry horses are bought in the latter part of sum¬ 
mer or in the autumn. If they are sent to the various regiments 
for which they were purchased, it is so late in the season that but 
little or no campaigning is done until the next year, consequently 
they have no hard work for several months after entering the ser¬ 
vice. Generally, some are retained at depots as a reserve, and are 
issued as required, so that a large part of the horses bought for 
cavalry purposes each year receive but little actual work until the 
summer following their purchase. 
In breeding horses in that part of the west where cavalry 
horses are most often bought, it is customary to have the foals 
dropped in the spring of the year. 1 believe, from the observations 
I have made on this point, that this is true of about 90 per cent, 
of all the horses raised. Very few spring colts shed their corner 
incisors early enough in the season to permit the inspector to pass 
them as live-year-olds. Autumn colts, on the other hand, have 
these teeth well up at this season of their fifth year, and so are 
not refused on account of want of age. With the exception then, 
of not more than 10 per cent., cavalry horses do no service until 
they are six years old or over. 
The majority of the horses which were the subjects of the 
above reported inspections, had been sent to the Fort Leaven¬ 
worth depot for disability, recuperation, or by reason of dismount- 
