Secret of Hiding a Spavin.
It is an old “gyp” trick to beat one hock-joint with a stick so that it will swell and acquire the same size as the hock unsound from spavin. Caustic solutions injected under the skin at the seat of spavin also smooth the appearance of the joint.
If spavin is suspected, test for it by picking up the hind foot and holding it toward the stifle for two or three minutes so as to tightly shut the hock-joint. Then drop the foot and instantly have the horse trotted. If spavin, apparent or hidden (occult), is present the horse will hop off on three legs, or go much lamer than before.
Artificially Induced Knee Action.
True knee action is an inborn trait in certain horses, such as those of the English hackney breed, and some families of American trotters; but in many high-stepping horses, sold on the market, such action is unnatural, and has been acquired. The true knee actor flexes his hocks about as freely as he does his knees. This is the test: Watch a fashionable, high-going coacher, and if the action is not well balanced, and if the hind legs are imperfectly flexed, and seem to have difficulty in “keeping up with the procession,” depend upon it that the horse has been trained to go as he does and easily may forget his lessons on leaving school.
The “gyp” trick is to wet the hoof heads with turpentine, which sets up intense irritation and induces knee action. This is readily discovered by remembering to run the hands over the coronets when examining the horse, then noting if they smell of any drug.
The horse trainer, on the other hand, develops high knee action by putting on heavy shoes, the toes being left long; by trotting and galloping the horse in plowed land, deep snow, or a deep bed of straw. He also frequently taps the legs back of the knees with a whip or light stick as the horse takes daily walking exercise. Soon the animal learns the trick of high stepping, and thus is ready to match with one of like kind and gait, for sale at a high figure to some rich man in the city.
A coach horse with extraordinary high knee action was sold by a dealer to a city man for $400. In a few days the buyer returned the horse saying, “Sell him over again; you put him on me, now stick some one else with him.” This horse had stringhalt in both fore legs which caused him to go high.
In buying a coach or hackney stallion or mare for breeding purposes, see to it that the high action is natural and not acquired or due to chorea, else the tendency to step high will not be transmitted to the progeny.