What is soundness in a horse?

Question

when people talk about sound and unsound horses what do they mean?

Answer 1

unsound is if the horse limps or has problems with their legs

sound is if they do not have problems with their legs

Answer 2

Soundness usually has to do with the limbs, joints  hooves and other structures related to the horse's ability to function.  An unsound horse is one that has a known disorder such as arthritis or previous founder that affects how he may be used in the future. It can also refer to  any ongoing, chronic iliness that limits function, such as ROA  or heart disease.

Answer 3

it is when a horse is unhealthy

Answer 4

Unsound

A horse with health problems or lameness.

Sound

This is the term to describe a healthy horse, and it may only apply to certain things, a horse may be sound for flat work, but unsound for jumping.

Answer 5

Unsound means they have a physical issue.  You don't see it so much now, but years ago ads for horses would frequently include "sound in wind and limb", meaning that the horse had no respiratory issues such as COPD, and that it wasn't lame.  

Answer 6

"Sound" is what people call a horse that has no problems at all  with bones, muscles, tendons, etc. Basically there's no problems with any body parts. It does NOT mean that the horse has good conformity. If you are buying a horse, you always want to have a vet check it out first, don't take the sellers word for it. Always get a third party to check the horse out.

"Unsound" is when a horse HAS problems with its bone structure, or other body part. If a horse isn't sound, there isn't usually a way to change that, but there sometimes is. Depends on the problem.

Good luck! :)

Answer 7

a sound horse is a horse that is perfectly safe n sound

Answer 8

sound: has no problem with there legs and can go in EVERY gait without any kind of limp.

unsound horse: a horse that does limp or has a potenital problem that could END UP making him unsound (ei: a horse with a bone chip, arthritis, or some kind of conformation issue can also cause it)

hope this helped :)