SIfUlLDERS lAllUE.- ACTION. 1| 



3]. That such knock-knre form is occasioned by weakness, is evident from 

 the [>ositioM of the knees, when the aniiiiul stands at rest. This he doea oy 

 supporting liimself at times like a dancing-master, with one foot before the 

 other; and, no doubt, the twist with which his yiace is always attended when 

 going, occasions certain di.scirders of the feet, which he seeks to ease by shift- 

 ing the weight aUernately from one, to the other foot. He will, moreover, 

 sooner "knock up," and ultimately "get done for" earlier in life, by reason 

 .••f the origin of this species of mallbrmation being seated high up on the limb, 

 theieby incommoding the action of the shoulder-mu.scles : the elbow, at N. 

 M, by being pressed close to the ribs, having thrown in the knees, receives, at 

 .very step the Irg takes, a kind of double motion, which, of course, doubly 

 alle. Is the action ol those parts; and much fatigue, pain, and anguish succeed 

 ."ach other, until it communicites to the cavity »,f the chest, or other internal 

 jTirts. Such animals havt; frequently the shoulders unusually muscular, hid- 

 ing, in a good m<'asure, the original d<'f ct from the eye and touch of a com- 

 mon observer ; but it may, nevertheless, be ascertained to exist, by the s\'mp- 

 tomsjust now mentioned, as well as by the appearance of the protruding 

 nuiscle before noticed at Sect. 5. To knocked knees and inside tread, let me 

 add the circumstance, that such horses have a broken pace, kicking loose 

 stones before them, with a certain roUing from side to side, to the great annoy- 

 ance of the rider. All this arises from awkwardness, by reason of the shoul- 

 der's bad position, whereby the leg being thrown sideways removes the foot 

 in an increasing ratio from the centre of gravity, and, instead of its being 

 tlirown straight forward, describes part of a circle, more or less curved, ac- 

 Fig. 4. cording to the amount of the original defect. 



The straiglit dotted line shows the space a well- 

 formed foot, such as belong to the leg in our pre- 

 ceding sketch (3), would take, being on paper 

 just one inch ; the curved line shows the course, 

 or nearly so, the foot is thrown which belongs to 

 m ill-formed shoulder, contracted at the elbow: 

 as this Une is an inch and an eighth (1 in. ^) in 

 length, the horse so formed does an eighth more 

 ivork than one with straight legs would do on going over the same ground. 



In addition to his other evils, a horse with such a shoulder (being muscular) 

 IS most liable to contract " tistula in the withers ;" but, if not so muscular, 

 *' strain of the shoulder" is likely to attend his twisted manner of treading, when 

 hard worked. With such a built horse, "splents" are usually more tedious 

 than with a straight-limbed one ; and strains of the sinews, i. e. of the tendon, 

 as well as those of the coffin-joint, happen oftener, and appear with worse 

 symptoms, in proportion as the limbs are more or less cross-built*. 



9. Long and sloping pasterns [Y, 13 — 16, and Y, 34 — 39] partly denote 

 the Arabian, are handsome to view, and make easy goers; but such horses 

 soon tire, and, 1 may say, are generally weak, having the flexor tendon, or 

 back sinew, considerably relaxed. The small pastern, or bone inserted at the 

 hoof, always rises in a direct line from the hoof, both being about 45 degrees 

 for saddle-horses, as at 6, (fig. 5.) and the large pastern is then several degrees 

 nearer to upright. These hoofs stand of anovaX shape, a.id have small frogs. 

 But some, as draught horses, have large frogs, the hoof round, and more 

 upright by nearly ten degrees in early life, as at (c) in the annexed scale, in 

 which case they are liable, if no change takes place, and they get older and 

 weaker in the joints, to " knuckle over." But, getting aged, and the supply 



• I resen'e un'il a latter part of tlit \'olume what 1 shall have to say, respecting strain of the 

 back sinew and of the coftiii-joint, which I have thus named in confomiity with the genera) 

 vuigaricin;, in order to make myself intelligible to the meanest capacity.— Sec I-\ oL a seciioti of 



