146 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



'Were anything wanting to convince me that the 

 seat of foot lameness is in the navicular joint, I should 

 take my stand in the hinder hoof. This, it appears, 

 is never affected with navicular disease. But why, may 

 I ask, does it not ? The answer is — it does not 

 receive concussion sufficient to injure the navicular 

 joint : it comes obliquely, and not perpendicularly, 

 to the ground, as does the fore-foot ; neither does it 

 support anything like the same quantity of weight. 



Now, for the sake of argument, it may be asserted, 

 that as, from the form of the animal, it was necessary 

 that the fore legs should carry a greater proportion 

 of the animal (say nothing of the rider) than the 

 hinder ones. Nature has been deficient in not providing 

 accordingly. To this I answer, that for all natural 

 purposes she has provided ; but not against going 

 at the rate of twenty miles in the hour, with additional 

 weight, and opposed to two of the hardest substances 

 we have — iron and stone. It is " the pace that kills " 

 here, as well as in other cases ; and to the moderate 

 pace at which horses in foreign countries are ridden 

 (a fact universally allowed) is to be attributed the 

 more general absence of foot lameness, and not to 

 their clumsy method of shoeing, which I shall allude 

 to hereafter. , 



From having been so much on " the road " my eye 

 is quite familiar with horses having this (navicular) 

 disease ; and I know them when I see them standing 

 in the stable. They stand in a position peculiar to 

 themselves, leaning obliquely backwards, as it were, 

 to ease the fore feet, and trying to rest their weight 



