296 SCIENTIFIC HORSESHOEING. 



Hitching, and its Causes and Cure. — Hitching and hop- 

 ping are defects so very common in speed horses that I wish to 

 say a few words about them, inasmuch as I have been so often 

 requested to do so ; and wliile I know that scarcely two indi- 

 viduals agree upon this important matter, I am glad to put 

 forward my theorj' and experience, if only to draw out others. 

 The cause and the defects are sometimes in the hind legs — 

 beins: overdriven when out of condition. In some cases the 

 muscles are overtaxed and develop what is termed muscle sore- 

 ness, which will cause the horse to hitch and hop ; and some- 

 times speedy cutting or what is known by horsemen as scalping. 

 In some cases the cause is in the front foot stride. For instance, 

 take the case of the phenomenal trotting mare, Lida Bassett, 

 whose performance at Chester Park in 1883 startled the turf 

 community. At first slie hitched in lier slow w^ork in the left 

 hind leg, and then extended it to her brushes of speed. On 

 one occasion at Chester Park, I noticed that the mare nodded 

 her head every time the right front foot landed on the ground. 

 This led me to have the stride of the front and hind feet meas- 

 ured with a tape-line. The footprint of the right front foot 

 was just four and one-half inches shorter than the left front 

 footprint. I removed the right front shoe, welded a spur in the 

 center of the shoe at the toe, bent the spur at the angle of the 

 foot in front of the foot, and then placed a four-ounce weight 

 on the spur on the right front foot, and had the mare driven. 

 The hitching entirely disappeared on the left hind leg. This 

 was one of the causes of hitching behind. First locate the 

 cause, and then by removing the cause the effect ceases. 



When I first began to study up the causes of this defect, I 

 assigned it to several, and later experience has borne me out. 

 The feet may be unbalanced, or the shoes improperly weighted 

 in front and behind. Ill-made and poorly fitted shoes in front 

 and behind may cause the horse to scalp and hit his shins be- 



