114 



METHODS OF HORSE-CONTROL. 



or with a stirrup leather, are : (a) That it is apt to irritate 

 the animal by the compression needed to keep the strap 

 in its place ; (b) That, when the leg is thus fixed, the horse, 

 in the event of his " coming down," is liable to hurt his knee ; 

 " capped knee " being the usual result of the injury, on 

 account of the extensor tendon of the knee being at that 



moment tightly stretched over the 

 part : I have had this accident 

 occur on several occasions, when 

 making horses lie down, even when 

 they had knee-caps on, and when 

 the ground was soft ; (c) The heel 

 of the shoe, if the horse be shod, 

 is apt to bruise and cut the elbow ; 

 (d) The compression exercised by 

 the strap on the fore arm numbs 

 the leg, and tends to make the 

 animal fall awkwardly, if he is 

 made to lie down ; (e) Unless the 

 strap is kept very tight, it is apt to 

 slip down the fore arm, and thus 

 exercise an injurious strain on the 

 fetlock joint. 



2. By far the best way for tying 

 up a fore leg is the one described by 

 Mr. Saunders in 'Our Horses,' by 



which the leg is simply suspended, at any length required, 

 from the surcingle. Mr. Saunders advises the use of a small 

 loop to connect the surcingle and strap together (see Fig. 36), 

 with the object, I presume, of keeping the limb in a plane 

 parallel to the general direction of the horse's body. This 

 is certainly an advantage when making a horse lie down ; 

 although I have found, for ordinary purposes of control, 

 that the employment of the small loop may be dispensed 



Fig- 33- Rarey's leg-strap. 



