3i6 THE HIND LIMB. 



beautiful hock — with great bone and straight-dropped hind 

 leg — of a smart and strong hurdle racer and chaser 

 (Mariner by Geologist). We may contrast it very favour- 

 ably with the hock in Fig. 393. The hock (that of a 

 thorough-bred) in Fig. 392, though fairly good, is neither 

 so straight nor has such good bone just below the joint 

 as that in Fig. 387. The leg in Fig. 391 belonged to a year- 

 hng thorough-bred filly, which was by Highland Chief, 

 and which had, as we can see from the photograph, 

 remarkably good hocks for her age. 



We are all agreed that a horse should have large hocks, 

 an expression which — granting that its shape is good in 

 other respects — is synonymous with '' strong hocks." If 

 we find that a horse is not '' tied-in " below the hock, 

 and that his gaskins are broad {i.e. his os calcis long), we 

 may rest assured that his hocks are of good size. 



As the diseases and injuries of the hock belong to the 

 domain of equine surgery, and as they have been discussed 

 in Veterinary Notes for Horse-Owners, I shall not allude 

 further to them here. The desirable absence of synovial 

 enlargements and of an undue amount of cellular tissue 

 will be indicated by the bones, tendons, and ligaments, and 

 by the hollows and eminences formed by them, being clearly 

 defined underneath the skin. 



Hocks and Knees well let down. — There is no point in 

 the conformation of the horse, upon which more stress is 

 usually laid, than that which may be described in horsey 

 language as " hocks and knees well let down," or " hocks 

 and knees close to the ground." The cheetah (Fig. 3) has 

 this point well marked. The black buck (Fig. i), another 

 speedy animal, is, on the contrary, long from his hocks and 

 knees. From an examination of the comparative length of 

 the bones of the limbs (pp. 186 to 190), we know that 

 the proportion of the length of the column of bones below 

 the knee and hock to that of the radius and tibia, respec- 

 tively, remains more or less constant. How then comes 

 it, we may well ask, that the idea of the hocks and knees 



