KING-BONES. 289 



ledged; I therefore simply advise breeders of horses never to 

 breed from a sire or dam having ring-bones, unless their origin 

 can be readily traced to some accidental cause. 



The structural tendency to ring-bone is manifested in horses 

 with upright pasterns. Percivall explains this in nearly the 

 following words : — 



" The pastern and coffin bones constitute the nethermost 

 parts, the pedestals of the columns of bones composing the 

 limbs ; and being so, they receive the entire weight and force 

 transmitted from above. The pastern, when long and oblique 

 in position, receives the superincumbent weight in such an 

 indirect line that, bending towards the ground with the fetlock, 

 nothing like jar or concussion follows. The very reverse of 

 this, however, is likely to happen every time the foot of a limb 

 having a short and upright pastern comes to the gTound. In 

 it, instead of the weight descending obliquely, it descends 

 directly upon the pastern bones, making them entij-ely depen- 

 dent upon the pedal bone for counteractive spring ; and should 

 anything occur to destroy or diminish tliis spring, or to throw 

 more weight, or weight more suddenly, upon it than it can 

 counteract, jar of the whole apparatus ensues ; and an effort of 

 nature to strengthen the parts, by investing them with callus 

 and ossification, is likely to be the ultimate result. For we 

 would view ring-bone, disease though it most assuredly must 

 be called, frequently in young horses, as a resource nature 

 seems invariably to adopt whenever the pastern bones and 

 joints are found unequal to the exertions or efforts required of 

 them. And the reason why ring-bone occurs oftener in the 

 hind than in the fore limb will probably be found in the greater 

 stress or strain the hind pasterns undergo in unbacked young 

 horses, particularly in such acts as galloping, jumping, &c., 

 exercises which they are likely to take of their own accord 

 while running out at pasture." 



In the treatment of ring-bone care must be taken to observe 

 how the patient places the foot on the ground. In the fore leg 

 he always puts the heel down first, in order to throw the weight 

 of his body, and the consequent concussion from, the column of 

 bones, on to the soft parts. In such a case a thin-heeled bar- 

 shoe must be put on the foot — the shoe recommended by my 

 friend Mr. Broad of Bath for laminitis. This gives great relief 

 u 



