80 



CONFOKMATION AND ITS DEFECTS 



of dispersion, and has, from this fact, hard reactions; besides, he is more 

 predisposed to osseous blemishes of the bones of the limbs, as ring-bones, &c. 



The direction of the pastern is intimately allied to its length ; that is 

 to say, a long pastern (fig. 62) is in most cases too horizontal, while it 

 becomes more vertical when it is too short. An exception is illustrated 

 in fig. 63, where the pasterns are both short and sloping. 



The close relationship which associates long-jointedness with low- 

 jointedness is easy of comprehension, the pastern becoming less and less 



:'u. 61. — Goud Pasterns 



Fig. 62. — Long sloping Pasterns Fig. 63. — Short sloping Pasterns 



a column of support in the one, and more and more an elastic spring in 

 the other in proportion as its length increases. 



A spring gives all the more as it is more elastic and as the pressure which 

 it supports is greater. This is precisely what takes place in a long-jointed 

 pastern ; which is at the same time nearly always low-jointed, because it is 

 relatively weak and flexible under the weight and the reactions of the body. 



The long and oblique pastern renders the horse more supple and more 

 pleasant to ride; it enables him to disperse more easily the violent reaction 

 of locomotion at great speed, and it would be very desiraljle in the saddle- 

 horse, the driving-horse, and the race-horse were it not a source of danger 

 to the integrity of the tendons. 



"The short and straight pastern is strong; it has no very prejudicial 

 influence against heavy-draught services, but it renders the reactions hard, 

 and jeopardizes thereby the integrity of the osseous apparatus, hence it 

 unfits a horse for ftist ridino." — Goubaux and Barrier. 



