HORSES: THEIR POINTS AND MANAGEMENT 



objectionable. It is a very common thing to see cart horses 

 \\ith badly formed, ill set pasterns. 



Faults. — Bony growths very common in the region of the 

 pasterns and fetlocks (^ringbone^, interfering with or destroying 

 the animal's utility. One or both joints may be the seat of 

 this diseased condition. 



Ringbone is particularly common in the forelimbs, so the 

 buyer must be careful. It is a bad plan to breed from either a 

 sire or dam haying ringbone. The same remark is equally 

 applicable to bone spavin. 



The Feet. — It is a matter of common sense that any breed 

 of horse, to do good service, must have well formed, and sound 

 feet. Judges of cart horses will not look at a horse with badly 

 formed, ill-placed, or small feet, and rightly so, as they con- 

 stitute the foundation stone of utility. 



The feet must be of proportionate size, have good sloping 

 walls, and well open at the heels, free from cracks (sandcrack), 

 and brittleness, but composed of tough, elastic, horny tubes. 

 The soles concave and the frog elastic and full. At the back 

 and upper part of the coronet (hoof border) there are two 

 elastic plates of cartilage, known as the lateral cartilages, and 

 it is these structures that are commonly diseased in shire and 

 cart horses. This disease is " sidebone," so detrimental to 

 the market value (not always utility) of the animal. The 

 lameness that frequently rises is due to the pressure of these 

 hardened cartilages upon the soft structures in juxtaposition 

 to them. When pressed they will be found to have lost their 

 normal elasticity. Pay particular attention to the feet when 

 buying a horse. Sandcrack, false quarter, seedy toe, bruised 



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