20'j SCIENTIFIC IIURSESHOEING. 



Splay Foot— Knee Hitting. — The term '' splay foot " is 

 applied to horses that point or spread their toes outward. This 

 condition may arise from either one of two causes: tirst, from a 

 fault of conformation, which may be discovered by an examina- 

 tion of the limb from the foot to the shoulder. If the toe turns 

 out and the upper arm stands in close to the body, the malform- 

 ation is in the *' splayed " condition of the upper arm or shoulder 

 joint. AVhen this is the case there is no remedy to be found in 

 any proposed style of shoeins^, for the foot can not be pared to 

 bring it straight in line with the median plane of the body with- 

 out violently wrenching or twisting the jointed process of the 

 shoulder and forearm. 



Second, The cause may be referred to mismanagement or 

 improper shoeing of the foot. In this case the arm may be 

 normal and the fault confined to the ankle and foot — the pastern 

 inclined inward ami the toe of the foot turned outward. An 

 examination of the hoof under these circumstances will reveal 

 that the splayed appearance does not exist in the condition of 

 the limb, and is therefore not real but is due to an unbalanced 

 foot — the outside of the splay foot being too high at the toe. 

 This defect can then be remedied and the foot straightened in 

 line with the normal axis of the leg by proper attention in 

 shoeing. 



Sometimes this deformity is visible only in one limb, while 

 its counterpart may be perfectly straight. An instance of this 

 kind that came under my observation was the case of the once 

 noted trotter, " Jo Bunker." One of his fore limbs curved in- 

 ward very noticeably, with the foot splayed or turned outward, 

 but the other limb was straight and true to the line of normal 

 movement. 



■ When at rest splay-footed horses always stand with their 

 front feet slanting, wide apart, with toes out and heels in ; and 

 from this fact it is apparent that the higher the outside toe is, 

 the farther and wider will the feet point. The longer, too, that 



