FAULTY CONFORMATIOX AND MOVEMENT. 209 



cordance with my best judgment. Upon trial, he may begin to 

 forge or click at once, or possibly not until after a lapse of time. 

 Upon being brought back to me for a second examination and 

 another shoeing, I may be able to detect the fault at once ; pos- 

 sibly not, however, until after a third shoeing. It is evident, 

 therefore, supposing that I am competent in every way in my 

 handicraft, that if that colt continues, as we have above said, to 

 forsre or click, that we must look for the cause in the animal 

 itself. 



Upon examination it will be found that the fourteenth dor- 

 sal vertebrae (see skeleton. Fig. 2) is the pivot or axis around 

 which the weight is poised, being the center of gravitation. It 

 is plain, therefore, that if the symmetry of the horse be afiected 

 either by disproportionate construction, by acquired faults or by 

 wrong shoeing, that his center of gravity is disturbed ; that is, 

 he is unbalanced. And such, in a word, is the general cause of 

 the fault under discussion. 



The horse may be heavier in front than behind ; he may be 

 too upright in his shoulders ; he may be short in his pasterns. 

 His legs may be disproportionately long in comparison with his 

 length under the belly. He may have long pasterns and be 

 unnaturally long in his sweeps behind, or close gaited behind, 

 due to his stifle standing in, his hocks standing out and his 

 toes inwardly inclined ; or he may carry his head too high or 

 too low. 



Any one or more of these causes may have been present in 

 the example above given, and were brought out upon the first 

 shoeing. When, therefore, a horse is found to be subject to 

 forging or clicking, the first and all-important thing is to deter- 

 mine how he is unbalanced and proceed to distribute equally 

 around the center of his gravitation the natural and acquired 

 weights he must carry. ISTo general rule can be given for this. 

 In the cases above mentioned, one must rely upon his own judg- 

 ment and experience. I have had occasion many times to de- 



