SHOULDER-LAMENESS
,—in a horse, is a defect in the scapularian muscles, or at the ligamentary junction of the fore thigh-bone with the concave point of the shoulder blade, upon which many, and some opposite opinions have been obstinately maintained: and there are not wanting at the present moment, those who affect to believe, and presume to affirm, "there is no such thing as a shoulder lameness in any horse." The absurdity of this ridiculous and contemptible assertion, can only be equalled by the unparalleled ignorance and illiteracy of those who make it: strangers to the anatomical structure of parts, they are inadequate to the comprehension of their uses, and the purposes to which they become intentionally appropriate. In direct confutation of such futile opinion, it is most indisputably ascertained, that injuries are frequently sustained in the shoulders, from which incurable lameness often ensues. Such accidents and misfortunes happen to horses in different ways: some by unforeseen circumstances, which no human prudence can prevent; others (equal, if not superior in number) by carelessness, inhumanity, inattention, or neglect. Lameness in the shoulder may be occasioned by the horse's being too suddenly stopped and turned upon uneven ground; sliding, stumbling, or flipping down, in a distorted position of either fore leg; turning too rapidly in a narrow stall, or too quick, sudden and short into a stable. That all which may be the better understood, by those who are anxious for information, and open to conviction, it is necessary, for the accommodation of every comprehension, to observe, that the blade or shoulder-bone not being fixed to the body by articulation, but by apposition adhering to the ribs, and firmly fastened thereto by corresponding muscles above and below, the animal, in undergoing any of the casualties before recited, sustains the injury described; in which the tendons or coats of those muscles are strained and relaxed; and as the extension has been more or less violent, so will the case be more or less dangerous and perplexing.
Cases constantly occur, where, by a slip, a cavity in the road or pavement, a rolling-stone, or any other cause, the leg of a horse is unavoidably thrown into a distorted and unnatural position, from whence ills ensue; the ligamentary junction, and muscular support, may be singly or conjunctively injured, in proportion to the magnitude of the cause by which the accident was sustained. In most occurrences of this description, some difficulty arises in the endeavour to discover the precise seat of injury, which is not, by the most judicious and observant investigator, always to be decisively ascertained: amidst such doubts, strict examination should be made to discriminate with certainty between a LAMENESS in the SHOULDER, and a defect in the foot; and this investigation is the more indispensibly necessary to be made, because, in strict verification of the ancient adage, "Doctors differ," instances are numerous, where one practitioner vehemently affirms the lameness to be in one part, and his veterinarian opponent as violently pronounces it to be in another. There is, however, one kind of clue, if properly attended to, which will generally lead to a ready distinction between a lameness in the foot and an injury in the shoulder; by getting twenty yards before the horse, so as to face him, and having him brought forward with increased action, fixing the eye at the foot, and bringing it gradually up to the chest, the imbecile effort at the point of the SHOULDER attended with pain, and the consequent bow or drop of the head, (as if going to fall,) will evidently demonstrate whether the seat of injury is there. On the contrary, in most lamenesses of the FOOT, the subject makes an attempt rather to hop, or to touch the earth lightly with the joint affected, than to give it equal support with the rest upon the ground: a horse lame in the foot, displays it most, the more he is ridden or driven; but a horse who has received an injury in the shoulder, demonstrates it less and less, the more he gets into a perspiration.