Experiments and their Verification 157 



Tried this way the result is curious. My notes say that "she now 

 shows good knee action, but no hock action at all." Evidently the hind 

 legs again extended under too much. Fig. 124 made on the same scale 

 as Fig. 122 will show by comparison with latter this lack of separation 

 between fore and hind extremities. There is, in fact, a decrease in the 

 difference of extension between fore (from 3.84 inches to 3.3 inches), 

 but behind the difference has increased considerably ( from 2.4 inches to 

 3.9 inches). It is the off hind that advances over the near hind. The 

 average distance between the extremities is but 1.95 feet against 3.65 

 feet at previous trial. It is true that stride has almost increased 2 feet 

 (from 14.95 to 16.86 feet), but this in itself should rather cause greater 

 separation. There is also the beveled toe of fore to consider as in- 

 creasing the knee action and decreasing somewhat the extension of fore. 

 The old habit of going under herself behind was, therefore, again 

 brought out and this double approach of extremities caused the abnor- 

 mally small distance between them (1.95 feet). Amid these many con- 

 ditions, however, there appears again the effect of the toe-weight on 

 the activity of the hind leg correlated with the fore checked by such a 

 weight. The slight changes here undertaken showed a remarkable dif- 

 ference in the mode of propulsion. It only goes to prove that we 

 never know the actual conditions of a horse's gait until it is plotted 

 down in such a manner. Again, the reader is advised not to take this 

 as conclusive evidence of other matter than the question of toe-weights, 

 which seem to have shown their effect in the above cases. 



The second case, and last one in this series, was that of a trotting 

 bred gelding by Direct, which had been used under saddle and was 

 a compact, handsome animal. His gait was, like the previous one, more 

 or less the result of a continued application of toe-weights, long toes 

 and low angles. Such combination of unfortunate circumstances, for 

 which man is always responsible, are not matters of a few shoeings 

 for correction. One year would be about the time necessary to effect 

 any change without loss of speed. 



This gelding was shod as in Fig. 125, with resultant extensions 

 lengthwise and lateral as given- in Fig. 126 and 127. With the toe- 

 weights his manner of going was fairly good except that he went under 



