144 England's horses, 



simply, that nature, having designed the haunches as the true 

 seat of the animal's progressive power, would never allow their 

 legitimate use to be attended with bad consequences of any kind, 

 either to themselves or to the neighbouring parts of the limbs ; for 

 disease is not normal, but acquired, being only the result of dis- 

 organization, and the invariable attendant of abuse, but never of 

 the due use of any of nature's provisions; but however strongly 

 the case may appear to have been made for the application of that 

 argument, it may be well to meet the objection upon diiferent 

 and independent grounds: — and first, the true cause of hock ail- 

 ments is not the excess, but the defect of action in the haunches, 

 for then the hocks have to do the work the haunches have left un- 

 done, and the haunches have their work undone for this simple 

 reason, that if they opened out and closed vip to their full extent 

 at every stride, the hind foot must needs come forward to a place 

 where the fore foot stands in its way and impedes it ; and the fore 

 foot stands there, because the bent knee and straightened pastern 

 have thrown it back from its proper place under the point of the 

 shoulder ; and the knee has been bent, and the pastern has been 

 straightened, because the shoulder has, from time out of mind, 

 been depressed by the imposition of burthens in advance of the 

 point to which the animal has been taught to bring up his pro- 

 pellers ; so that by elevating the fore hand, getting the fore feet 

 out of the way, and putting the horse on his haunches, we not 

 only do not throw any additional strain upon the hocks, but really 

 relieve them of an undue task, which we thus confer and confine 

 to the proper instruments provided by nature for its due per- 

 formance. 



And although apart from the subject with which I am here 

 occupied, I ask pardon for digressing so far as to direct the mind 

 of the reader to the adoption of this theory in confutation of the 

 shallow and unreasoning objections so pathetically urged against 

 the use of the bearing rein, which may be regarded in its 

 judicious application as one of the most humane and excellent 

 instruments known for the increased accession of the harness 



