364 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



sure to cause trouble from severe concussion. We require oblique 

 pasterns to offset concussion — to gradually or easily convey the con- 

 cussion from the foot to the pillar of leg bones above it. Looking at 

 the profile of the leg the angle of the front of the hoof should be ex- 

 actly that of the pastern. Any serious departure from an angle of 45 

 degrees is to be considered a grave error not to be set right by par- 

 ing or shoeing and to be rejected if possible in breeding, A springy 

 pastern possessed by a horse having clean bone and well-marked ten- 

 dons with or without the fine hair alluded to al)ove may be taken as 

 indicative of free, straight action. 



Action and quality go together and it remains in examining a 

 horse to see that this is the case when he is moved at • a walk and 

 trot. If his legs are properly set and his joints under proper control 

 he will go and come without '•paddling," or "'wobbling." The feet will 

 be carried in a straight line and rise and fall rhythmically, showing 

 the shoe soles both fore and aft. A plummet line dropped from the 

 center of the elbow joint should cross the center of the knee and pas- 

 tern joint and back of the foot and the same line hung from the hip 

 joint should cross the center of the foot and divide the gaskin in the 

 middle. By this rule it will be eas'y to notice whether a leg good or 

 bad is in or out of the proper position and whether the hind leg is 

 crooked or sickle-hocked, hence prone to curbs and other ailments. 



Learn to look first at the feet and legs of every horse and soon it 

 will be natural to make instant comparisons and to distinguish in 

 d.epartures from the normal or ideal type kept ever in mind by the 

 trained judge of horses. We arrive at all information as to soundness 

 and correct judgment by a negative process. In other words, we look 

 for possibilities regarding unsoundness or departure from good type 

 and not finding them conclude that the more or less perfect condition 

 or conformation is there. In addition to this manner of approximat- 

 ing good points we acquire a faculty of '-'sensing" quality and valuing 

 parts. Such proficiency requires time, a correct eye, constant study 

 and experience, but it is based at the outset on understanding of qual- 

 ity and bone, hair and tendon together with a mathematical knowl- 

 edge of angles as they apply to pasterns and hocks, to say nothing of 

 the knees and set of the shoulders. 



In breeding ever endeavor to improve types possessed, for many 

 otherwise noble specimens of the draft breeds are woefully deficient 

 in slope of pastern while others have good pasterns and poor feet. 

 Good feet should be dense in structure, well developed, but not over- 

 sized, wide in heel, concave in sole, free from cracks, mealiness and 

 rings and having large, well developed frogs in contact with the 

 ground. 



TREATMENT OF SUNSTROKE OF HORSES. 



Br. A. S. Alexander, Wisconsin. 

 During periods of excessive heat, when work horses in the fields 

 or upon the streets are liable to suffer from sunstroke or overheating, 



