THE WALK. 83 



in this pace. ]n this country veterinary writers have generally 

 considered that in the sound foot the toe first reaches the ground, 

 and undoubtedly Mr. Percivall is no exception, for he says at page 

 143 of his Lectures, " To the eye of the observer there is the 

 slightest perceptible difi"erence between the toe and heels coming 

 to the ground in favor of the former, a difference that need not 

 disturb the horseman's good old rule, that a horse in his walk 

 should place his foot fairly and flatly down." This theory has, 

 as far as I know, never been admitted by practised horsemen, ani 

 in the year 1855, in describing the perfect hack, at page 526 of 

 "British Rural Sports," I wrote as follows : " The walk should be 

 safe and pleasant, the fore foot well lifted and deposited on its 

 heel." The first veterinary surgeon, however, who combated the 

 opinions of his brethren, was Mr. Lupton (a disciple of Mr. 

 Gamgee), who early in the year 1858, inserted in the Edinburgh 

 Veterinary Review the following " Physiological Reflections on the 

 Position assumed by the Fore Foot of the Horse in the varied 

 Movements of the Limb" : — 



" 1. The foot of a living horse in a state of rest remains firmly 

 on the ground, that is the toe and the heel are on the ground at 

 one and the same time ; but if during this position the extensor 

 muscles were to contract, then the toe would be raised from the 

 ground ; and if, on the other hand, the flexor muscles were to 

 contract, then the heel would be raised from the ground. Now, 

 during progression, the first movement which takes place is the 

 contraction of the flexor muscles, by which (together with the 

 muscles of the arm) the foot is raised, the toe being the last 

 part of that organ raised from the ground. The foot is now in 

 a position to be sent forward, which is brought about by the 

 contraction of the extensor muscles ; the foot is then thrown out 

 as far as the flexor muscles will admit, and when at the greatest 

 allowable point of tension, the heel is brought in apposition with 

 the ground. The flexors now in their turn contract, the heel is 

 first raised from the ground, and lastly the toe, which brings me 

 back to the point I started from, 



" 2. Viewing the leg of a horse as a piece of mechanism (allow- 

 ing the leg to be even in a state of anchylosis), and comparing it 

 to the spoke of a wheel, during the revolutions of which the pos- 

 terior part of the inferior extremity, or, in other words, that part 

 which is attached to the tier, comes in contact with the ground 

 first; if in the place of the spoke the above-mentioned leg of the 

 horse were there placed, the heel in that case would come in con- 

 tact with the ground first, and the toe last. 



"3. As to the anatomy of the foot. 



" The foot is composed of the os pedis, os naviculare, and a 

 email portion superiorly of the os corona. Between the alae of the 



