SOUNDNESS
,—in a horse, is of such extensive meaning, and infinite importance to the sporting world, to dealers in horses, and to individual purchasers, that it is exceedingly necessary some criterion should be fixed by which its present undefined meaning should be more properly and more equitably understood; for want of which, more litigation is carried into the Courts at Westminster for the emolument and amusement of the Gentlemen of the Long-robe, than any other subject whatever, the constantly increasing evil of crim. con. excepted. The general custom between BUYER and SELLER is precisely this; the horse is sold with or without certain conditions in respect to SOUNDNESS, and this is done by what is called a WARRANTY on the part of the seller thus: "He is warranted perfectly sound, free from vice or blemish, and quiet to ride, or draw," as either or both the latter may happen to be. A horse sold without a warranty, and taken as he is, is then purchased (and the purchase abided by) with all faults, and cannot be returned under any plea whatever, unless he can be proved to have been glandered at the time of purchase, in which state no horse can be legally sold.
In the strict and equitable sense of the word, a horse, to be perfectly sound, should be completely perfect: he should have no obstruction to sight, no impediment to action, but be in an acknowledged slate of natural purity; neither diseased, lame, blind, or broken-winded: he should not only be free from impediment at the time of sale, but bona fide never known to have been otherwise. Some there are who support a different opinion, and conceive (or pretend so to do) that a horse may be sold warranted perfectly sound, after he has recovered from a palpable lameness: those should recollect, that such horse is always liable to a relapse, or repetition of the injury; and whoever becomes so obstinate as to defend an action brought under such circumstance, will certainly feel the mortification of having a VERDICT pronounced against him, so soon as sufficient evidence has proved such horse to have been lame at any time whatever previous to the purchase.
Some years since, a late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench laid it down as a rule, and promulgated the opinion, from the bench during a trial then pending, that TWENTY POUNDS was a good and sufficient price for a SOUND HORSE; and whether a warranty was or was not given, was totally immaterial: that sum implied a warranty, not only for the horse's soundness at the time of his being then sold, but that he should continue so for at least three months afterwards; a declaration so truly ridiculous in itself, and so void of every principle of equity, that any man, to make it now, would lay indisputable claim to the appellation of FOOL or MADMAN.