LAYING DOWN THE FOOT. 153 



be consistent with theii* own views, they ought to hold 

 that a perfectly visible toe-action is quite as good as a 

 perfectly visible heel-action. If any person will take 

 the trouble of stooping down to the level of the road 

 whilst he watches a ^oof?-actioned horse going down a 

 hill, and if he plainly observes him laying the heel first 

 to the road, as I have often done, he will never, by any 

 chance, find him in the slightest degree impeded in his 

 action by laying down the heel, but the very reverse. 

 Then let him look at the other side of the picture, and 

 see the unsafe, clumsy, tedious, and defective action of 

 the horse which evidently sticks his toe into the ground, 

 either up the hill, or on the level road. If the toe, or 

 the flat of the foot, is brought first into contact with the 

 road, the bones of the pastern and foot must be in such 

 a position as to transmit the concussion right up to the 

 body of the rider, and the action of the animal will be 

 stilty in the very extreme ; whereas an inspection of a 

 perpendicular antero-posterior anatomical section of the 

 foot and leg will demonstrate that the heel position 

 allows the pasterns to assume the most favourable angle 

 for breaking the shock and obviating concussion. 



With regard to my plan, or the heel first, I would 

 like to know how it is possible, even in theoiy, for it 

 to produce either stilty, unsafe, impeded, or disagree- 

 able action ; and I would like to see the man who will 



