522 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and set up irritation and inflammation whicli are apt to result in such 

 unsoundness as navicular disease, side bones, ringbones, quarter crack, 

 corns, contracted heels and kindred troubles. The bone of the pastern 

 should have a slope of about forty-five degrees and the front of the hoof 

 fifty degrees. Upright pasterns induce stubby action and horses having 

 such conformation v^^ear out quickly upon the streets. Springy, elastic 

 action comes from oblique yet strong pasterns and the feet under such 

 wear well on the pavements. 



Ringbones are deposits of superfluous, granular bone at the upper, 

 middle or lower portions of the pastern bone and in aggravated cases 

 cause lameness and involve and interfere with the proper action of the 

 fetlock joint above or with the joint between the lower end of the pastern 

 bone and upper part of the coronet bone at juncture of horn of hoof and 

 hair of hoof-head. They give a bulging appearance to the part of the bone 

 affected, have the feel of bone and constitute unsoundness. They affect 

 the pastern and coronet bones of both fore and hind feet. 



Sidehones are located at the quarters, near the heels, at the juncture 

 of hair and hoof. They are due to the lateral cartilages (elastic plates) 

 at these parts changing to bone (ossifying). When present they may be 

 detected as prominent, hard, bony masses protruding above hoof at the 

 sides of the feet towards the heels and bulging the hoof under the part 

 involved. When sidebones are absent the cartilages can be grasped 

 between the fingers and thumb and moved or bent from side to side as if 

 they were formed of stout rubber. Sidebones are common in draft horses 

 and constitute unsoundness. Horses having very wide, flat, low-heeled 

 hoofs are most subject to this unsoundness. Stallions or mares afSicted 

 with sidebones or ringbones should not be used for breeding purposes 

 unless the unsoundness is confined to a single foot and known to be the 

 result of a barb-wire cut or other injury. In the case of public service 

 stallions a qualified veterinarian should always be employed to decide 

 whether sidebones or ringbones are present and he will best be able to 

 judge whether or not the condition descovered constitutes hereditary 

 unsoundness. 



Splints are abnormal bony excrescences formed at the sides of the 

 cannon bones where the small splint bones (metacarpals, in front, meta- 

 tarsals, in hind leg) overlie the large cannon bones. They are objection- 

 able, cause lameness when forming, are often an idication of light 

 bone but ordinarily should not be deemed to constitute hereditary or 

 transmissible unsoundness. It found on all legs, of large size and asso- 

 ciated with other bony growths (exostoses) they may indicate a hereditary 

 susceptibility to such bony growths (bony diathesis) and the animal 

 should be rejected as unsound for breeding purposes. 



Feet. — The hoofs should be of good size, sound in texture, waxy and 

 healthy in appearance, free from wrinkles, ridges, cracks proceeding from 

 the hoof-head downward, and prominent projecting growths at the toes, 

 indicating chronic founder (laminitis). The color of the hoof is of little 

 importance so long as the hoof is sound, fully developed, healthy and 

 properly formed. The hoof is a continuation of the skin of the leg and 

 takes its color from that of the skin of tho coronet and pastern. Dark 



