spavin mule

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

The local paper today had an interview with an 85 year old country ex-high school football coach (he had coached Lloyd Nix, who was QB for an Auburn natl champ team, and Pat Trammell, who was QB for a 'Bama natl champ team). In it, he said "I didn't play him on defense because he couldn't run down a spavin (crippled) mule."
 
I thought what a great bit of rural slang, I'll submit it to Jon's HDAS and the OED.  Then I look it up on the online OED, and find out it's been in print for nearly six centuries.  
 
The more I learn about language and slang, the more I find out that I don't know.

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