RINGBONE. 265 



or half-bred, fleshy or bony-legged horse, with short and upright 

 pasterns, is, we have observed, the ordinary subject of the disease ; 

 and there exist satisfactory reasons why we should expect him to 

 be so. 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, how- 

 ever, is likely to happen every time the foot of a limb, having a 

 short and upright pastern, comes to the ground. In it, instead of 

 the weight descending obliquely upon the sesamoids, and the 

 fetlock bending therewith, it descends direct, or nearly so, upon 

 the pastern, making this bone entirely dependent upon the bone 

 beneath it — the coffin — for counteractive spring ; and should any 

 thing occur to destroy or diminish this spring, or to throw more 

 weight, or weight more suddenly, upon it than it (the coffin 

 bone) 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 ringbone, disease though it most assuredly must be 

 called, as frequently in young horses a resource Nature seems 

 invariably to fly to whenever the (pastern) bones and joints are 

 found unequal to the exertions or efforts required of them. And 

 the reason why ringbone 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. Pecu- 

 liarities of breed and form, however, may be looked upon as 

 predisj)osing causes : we have yet to seek. 



Tlie exciting causes of ringbone. These may be said to consist in 

 any acts or efforts of speed or strength productive of concussion to 

 the bones of the pastern. Some have ascribed the presence of ring- 

 bone to " blows." Undoubtedly, a blow upon a bone would be very 

 likely to produce exostosis ; but the pastern, the hind pastern in 



VOL. IV. M m 



