252 Gait of the American Trotter and Pacer 



previously discussed, will further show the effect of shorter and longer 

 toes, or the difference in angle. The subject had been subjected to a 

 few preliminary trials during the fall of the previous year. He was a 

 resolute trotter and had been trained, but had been given up on account 

 of weak hind ankles. When he came under my notice this trouble was 

 not very visible and though he was not trained severely he formed 

 a good subject for an improvement of gait. He hopped a good deal 

 behind in the previous fall, but gradually improved and was a fairly 

 good piece of mechanism, as he went on during the time of these trials, 

 which covered a period of two months. 



We start with an even shoeing, as given in Fig. 186. Front shoes 

 are beveled on outside again to guard against knee-hitting. He had 

 too large an outward angle of the fore feet, particularly the off fore 

 (10) the near fore being less (6). Behind, the heels had been 



FIG. 



TGoiuce.6L one half 



"eased" so as to avoid any sudden arrest of motion or shock by high 

 or calked heels. The rolling motion shoe on hind, with forward and 

 backward level, was intended to prevent any shock to hind ankles. 

 The effect of these shoes in Figs. 187 and 188 was to increase exten- 

 sion of the hind slightly over that of the fore, this being 042 inch in 

 the second trial and about 0.96 inch in the last trial. 



In the first trial (Fig. 186) the hind shoes were plain and straight 

 and no such difference of extension between hind and fore existed. 

 Of course, the length of toes had also something to do with this fact. 

 It rarely happens that either extremity exceeds the other in the strides 

 by a fraction of an inch, but when it does occur there is likely to be 

 some faulty extension. In this case we may disregard the weakness 

 of hind ankles and their tendency to forward extension and we may 

 simply consider the influence of the length of toe and the angle, which 

 is our object in view. 



