HINTS ON BUYING. 177 



the shoe pinches. When the lameness is seated in the near 

 fore leg, the moment the foot of that leg comes in contact 

 with the ground the horse throws up his head and raises his 

 near shoulder to ease the weight of his body off that side, 

 and, transferring the centre of gravity to the sound side, then 

 drops his head. Of course, this transference of weight is 

 the reverse when the mischief lies in the off leg. When both 

 fore feet are lame, the nodding may be very slight or totally 

 absent ; but the action will be very short and close to the 

 ground, and the poor sufferer will go as tenderly and as 

 cautiously " as a cat on the ice." In hind-leg lameness the 

 nodding is veiy slight, and, as in the case of the fore legs, the 

 quarter on the same side as the tender foot is correspondingly 

 raised, the sound leg and foot being brought rapidly under 

 the body with a sort of catching recovery, the latter being 

 hastily brought to the ground. All round lameness will be 

 accompanied by a very short, cramped, delicate action. 



Under ordinary conditions, lameness may generally be 

 traced to some malady or defect from the knee or hock 

 downwards. There is a remarkable sympathy between the 

 digestive organs and the sensitive structures of the hoof, and 

 any inflammatory action in the body is almost certain to find 

 its way to the laminae of the feet. Like ourselves, the 

 horse goes suddenly lame from rheumatism, lumbago and 

 sciatica. In chronic rheumatism the lameness shifts about 

 day by day ; lumbago confines itself to the loins ; but 

 another phase of a similar disorder attacks the muscles 

 and fibrous tissues of the chest and shoulders, producing, 

 in stable parlance, what are known as "chest founder" and 

 '' shoulder tied." 



Certain copers more tricky than their neighbours resort to 

 such petty practices known as "beaning" or "wedging," in 

 order to disguise lameness. But these devilish, knavish tricks 



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