SOUNDNESS IN STALLIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 25

SOUNDNESS IN STALLIONS.

Mr J. W. Edwards, M.R.C.V.S., sends the following to the Sporting Life : — With regard to the professional opinion you have quoted in connection with the decisions at the Nottingham Show, treating the hereditary diseases of the horse, I should like to say a few words. Why 6hould curb be transmitted to progeny ? That is, a curb that has been brought about by accident or sprain in the horse which has been in training, and which has passed through that ordeal sound. The same theory must apply to a horse that may have acquired any other of the classed hereditary diseases by accident, say n violent cough and laryngitis, terminating in roaring or an over-exertion and extension of the lungs, and consequent emphysema, in which cases both diseases are liable to be transmitted to the progeny. For, let a horse be ever so sound, coming out of training is no guarantee that he is going to remain so for life. Are we to suppose that foals born with hocks having a tendency to become curby, and admitting the fault to be hereditary that their fore parent or parents have for generations back been subjecb to the disease, and never been sound in that respect? Or that the parent at some time, the sire or dam, may have met with an accident by spraining the ligament or any such cause after coming out of training, and thrown back The same formation of structure on the progeny? For my own part I believe that once these diseases are confirmed in the system of the parent from accident, or hereditary causes, such as roaring, broken wind, spavin, or curb, then you have the tendency to have the same formation transmitted to the young stock. • The weakness may not necessarily show itsef in the first generation, after the accident to parent, but you have the tendency jbo that formation of hock, and it may come out more defined Jn generations to come, when once the bad seed is sown. .In the case of splint,-which is a natural outcome of the strain brought to bear on the young horse when put into work, on the parts connected with split t, I should make an exception. In all horses after a certain age you will find that the same anatomical conditions exist, tha unity or fusion of the large and small metacarpals, but not in every instance do you find the bony nodule thrown out, which in many cases is only a part of the pathological process above referred to, and entirely depending on the situation, may, or may not, cause lameness, and consequent unsoundness. X therefore fail to see that there is any immunity for a sire to be used for stud purposes affected with any of the hereditary diseases you mention acquired by accident, although he may have a clean certificate at sis; years old, and passed out of training perfectly sound. . '