THE SKELETON. 33 



ciallj on the firmness of sinews and ligaments, 

 therefore the acuteness of the angles should not 

 transgress certain limits. A disproportion is 

 oftentimes found in the half-breeds, where the 

 long bones, an inheritance of one parent, do not 

 receive the necessary support from the loose fibres 

 from the other parent, producing crippled limbs 

 within a short time. 



Riders, without judgment, often taking the 

 increased carrying power and hard inelasticity of 

 the straight formations for signs of strength, attack 

 and ruin the joints quickly; sometimes they consider 

 the elasticity of the favorable formations as weakness 

 and are afraid to touch the animal. 



If we find a deviation from the normal, one joint 

 too straight, another too oblique, the latter will have 

 to bear the concussion intended for both. In a 

 horse standing straight in his hocks, the fetlock 

 joints will receive, in an increased proportion, the 

 shock from the bur J en. Also, a horse, straight in 

 the haunches (hip- and stifle-joints), but very oblique 

 in the hock joints, will suffer in the latter. 



The fore leg, the angles of which, between shoulder 

 blade and arm boDe, and between arm bone and fore 

 arm, are summarily narrower (as on the hind leg the 

 angles between thigh bone and leg bone, and between 

 leg bone and shank bone), receives, through the mus- 



