SECRETARY'S REPORT. 2.41 



slope of the foot and pastern the same bj adding to the length of 

 the hoof and shoe, as by placing the horse's head up hill, and with 

 greater permanency of effects, as we leave him no power to relieve 

 himself Often the two conditions are conjoined, the toes are inju- 

 riously long and the horse is confined nine-tenths of his time in a 

 sloping stall. Here the muscular exertion of sustaining his weight 

 soon becomes irksome. He shifts from one foot to another, but finds 

 it only a temporary relief The muscles connected with the tendons 

 that pass down the back part of the leg to the foot soon begin to 

 relax, till the weight falls on the ligamentous straps behind and 

 below the knee. Then the bones of the pastern and foot become 

 still more sloping, and to sustain his body perpendicularly above 

 his feet, and still more to relax the muscles, the knee bulgos out in 

 front to a line with the projecting toe. This at first occurs only 

 now and then, when the horse is wearied or forgetful, his postures 

 becoming natural and proper when roused up. By-and-by however, 

 it becomes a habit, and the causes being permanent and constant in 

 their action, the effects soon become the same, and we have the horse 

 for life "sprung in the knees." 



Many a valuable animal, tottering on the brink of this condition, 

 has been saved and brought back to usefulness, by having his feet 

 put in a proper shape, and a run at grass, or a loose box to stand in 

 allowed him, while others on whom the torture of long toes and 

 sloping stalls was persevered with, have become permanently useless. 



Another evil resultino; from the leno;tli of toes to which I have 

 been adverting, is interfering. The hjrse, finding the long projec- 

 tion in fiont of his foot as so much leverage acting to his disadvan- 

 tage, gradually gets into a habit of shifting it, by raising himself 

 from one or the other of the quarters. Tliis is still more the case 

 when, in addition to the long toe left on the hoof, a small round 

 knob of steel is set into the point of the shoe, as if in contempt of 

 all that nature teaches. With these absurd contrivances placed 

 between his weight and the ground that supports it, it is next to 

 impossible for a horse to raise himself evenly upward and forward, 

 and hence the number that one way or another inteifere. If in 

 raising his weight from the ground, the pressure be upon the inside 

 quarter of the foot, then the thick part of the pastern is thrown 

 inward, in the way of being struck by the upper edge of the hoof of 



