890 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



looked on with suspicion ; as, if natural, likely to interfere with motion without adding to strength ; or if 

 accidental, as a mark of acquired injury likely to remain. In the bony skeleton may be seen within and 

 behind the knee, an apparatus destined to remove the acting ligaments and tendons from the centre of 

 motion, by which great advantage is gained in the strengthening and facilitating their flexions. It is a 

 default in this conformation that renders horses tied in under the knee, as it is usually termed, and such 

 horses are the best proof of the truth of the reasoning here ofFered; for they are invariably found to bear 

 exertion badly ; their legs at an early period become bowed or arched, and totter on the slightest exertion. 

 In cart horses this conformation is very common ; but in them it is of less consequence than in those 

 destined for quicker motion, where the elevation of the limb is so extensively and so frequently repeated. 

 To render this subject familiarly clear, we will recommend that a cord be jilaced round the ball of the 

 thumb, and passed up close to the arm until it reaches the bend : with the other hand, by straightening and 

 extending this cord, but held close to the arm, endeavour to flex the hand and wrist inwards : operated in 

 this way it will require great force to do it ; but remove the hand only two inches from the arm, and the 

 bound hand will yield readily to a less force. Exactly the same happens to the ligaments and tendons 

 called back sinews which flex or bend the fore legs ; for by an apparatus, formed from the position of one 

 of the carpal bones, {pisiformis,) they are, in well formed legs, set out wide from the knee. 



5614. The back sinews should not only be large and firm, but they should, like the limb generally, be 

 very distinct from the knee to the fetlock]: in this course, if any thickening be observed, it betokens former 

 injury, as extension or rupture of ligamentous tibres, which usually have a disposition to recurring weak- 

 ness. If a hard swelling appear on the inner side, not on the tendon, but on the bone, a splint is present 

 which is more or less injurious as it is nearer or farther from the knee, or distinct from or situated among 

 the tendons and ligaments ; but when it is considerable in size, hot to the feel, and extends inwards and 

 backwards among them, it usually produces mo.'^t injurious consequences. To detect these evils the eye 

 alone should not be trusted, particularly where there is much hair on the legs, as on cart horses, and even 

 on hacknies in the winter, but the hand should be deliberately passed down the shank before and behind. 

 An enlargement or scar situated close to and on the inner side of the knee, must not be mistaken for a 

 splint ; it more frequently arises from a custom some horses have when trotting fast, of elevating their 

 legs and cutting this part with their shoes, and thence called the speedy cut. 



5615. The pastern and fetlock {f J). General usage has apphed the term fetlock to the joint itself, and 

 pastern to the part extended from the fetlock to the foot ; properly speaking, the fetlock or footlock is 

 only the posterior part of the joint, from whence grows the lock or portion of hair, which, in many 

 horses, flows over and around the hinder part of the foot ; a short and upright pastern is inelastic, and 

 such horses are uneasy goers ; they are unsafe also, for the pastern being already in so upright a position, 

 requires but little resistance, or only a slight shock, to bring it forwards beyond the perpendicular; and 

 the weight of the machine then forces the animal over. Nor are these the only evils arising from this 

 formation, for the ends of the bones being opposed to each other in nearly a perpendicular direction, 

 receive at each movement a jar or shock, which leads to an early derangement of the joint, and to the 

 appearance called overshot. On the contrary, when the pasterns are too long they are frequently too 

 oblique also ; and although their elasticity may be pleasant to the rider, such formation detracts from the 

 strength of the limb. These joints both before and behind are very subject to what is called windgalls, 

 which are swellings formerly supposed full of air, whence their name; but they are now known to con- 

 tain an encreased quantity of the mucus destined to lubricate the parts in their motions. These puffy 

 elastic tumours are originally small and hidden between the lower end of the canon, and the flexor 

 tendon, or back sinew ; but when hard work has inflamed all the parts, the secretion in them becomes 

 increased, and then they become visible to the eye ; but unless they are so considerable as to obstruct 

 the due action of the parts, they are no otherwise objectionable than as they tell a tale of inordinate wear 

 of the limbs generally. 



5616. The form of the pasterns influences the defect called cutting, which arises from a blow given to 

 either the fore or hind fetlocks by one leg to the other during its elevation. Horses narrow in the chest, 

 or which turn their toes out, or have other peculiarities cff form, cut permanently, and are then very 

 objectionable; but others only cut when fatigued, or when very low in flesh. Young horses often cut, 

 and when they become furnished, leave it off! 



5617. The feet {g g). The.se es.sential and complex organs will be more fully examined in the ana- 

 tomical detail, but much also presents itself to the consideration in an exterior examination. Horses 

 might be presumed to be naturally born with perfect feet; but experience shows that defects in these 

 organs are hereditary. In some, the peculiarities of climate operate; and in others, a constitutional 

 predisposition exists ; dependant on some cause with which we are unacquainted. 



5618. Climate influences the form of the horse's foot. In the arid plains of the east, where every 

 impediment is removed for an extensive search for food, the feet are hard, dry, and small; this form, 

 notwithstanding the alterations of breed and culture, in some degree still adheres to the blood or abori- 

 ginal eastern horse : artificial habits have extended the evil, and now small and contracted feet are to be 

 seen in every variety, excepting in the coarse heavy breeds. 



5619. Constitutional and hereditary causes operate on the feet. That a constitutional predisposition 

 exists in the production of a particular form of foot, we know from the fact, that dark chestnut horses 

 are more prone to contraction of the hoofs than any other colored horse : and that the form of the foot 

 is hereditary, may be gained from tiie known circumstance that some of the Lincolnshire stallions always 

 get large flat-footed progeny; while some full bred entire horses entail small upright feet on all their 

 -offspring. 



5620. Local situation will also affect the form of the feet. The eflTect of situation is remarkably exem- 

 plified in the horses which we used to obtain from Lincolnsliire, Cambridgeshire, and some parts of 

 Norfolk and Yorkshire, before 'he draining system was perfected. These horses had, almost invariably, 

 large, flat, heavy feet ; which however convenient and natural they might prove to the animals while 

 rnoving on the quaggy surface of marshy districts, yet were found very unfit for quick, light movements 

 in drier situations. Such horses go heavily and stumble ; and as the horn of which these enormous 

 feet are formed, is always weak, the anterior or front part yields to the heat and inflammation brought 

 Non by exercise on hard roads, and falls inwards, which letting the weight of the body fall on the soles pushes 

 that downward; and at last fVom a concave, it presents a convex surface. The feet cannot then bear 

 shoeing, but with much art and diflRcully : pain and tenderness bring on lameness and uselessness ; and 

 therefore horses with such feet should be rejected. Feet preternaturally small, are equally objectionable, as 

 3.)etokening a disposition to contraction. Horses with a tendency to founiiered feet stand with pain in the 

 stable, first placing one foot before, and then shifting it to place the other in the same situation. The 

 'contraction usually begins in the heels, which are found higher than natural, and drawn inwards ; the 

 foot altogether is likewise narrower, and the sole hard and hollow. When a preternatural fulness is 

 seen around the coronets, ring-bone may be suspected ; and if lieat and hardness be accompanied 

 with any tenderness in going, its existence is certain. But although too much horn is to be avoided^ 

 too little produces a weak foot; in which the heels, quarters, and soles all participate: the thin horn 

 cannot resist the imiiressions of the stones on the road, and then lameness ensues. The under surface of 

 the foot should exhibit a full healthy wide frog with bars prominent and properly inflected. The con- 

 cavity of the sole should be particularly attended to; when less than natural, it is weak, when more, it 

 indicates contraction ; from whence such feet have been called too strong. White feet are objectionable, 



'because they are found more liable to this evil than others. Corns are an evil to which the under surface 

 "of the foot is liable, and which should always be looked for on the purchase or examination of a horse ; 

 (ft>r which purpose, it would be well that the fore shoes should be removed, and the foot carefully pared 



