382 THE THIGH. 



and tlie otlier backward. The action of the fore legs thus least interferes 

 Avith the chest, and that of the hind legs with the belly. 



Width of haunch is a point of great consequence, for it evidently 

 affords more room for the attachment of muscles ; and even though it 

 should be so "wide as to subject the horse to the charge of being ragged- 

 hipped, and may somewhat offend the eye, it will not often be any detri- 

 ment to action. If the loins are broad and the horse well ribbed home, 

 the protuberances of the ilium can scarcely be too far apart. Many a 

 ragged-hipped horse has possessed both flectness and strength, while but 

 few that were narrow across the haunch could boast of the latter quality. 



The opening in the centre of these bones, which constitutes the passage 

 through which the young animal is expelled from the mother, is large in 

 the mai^e, and in every quadruped, because there cannot, on account of the 

 form of the animal, be any danger of abortion from the weight of the 

 foetus pressing on the part. 



The only portion of these bones exposed to injury or fracture are the 

 tuberosities or prominences of the haunch. A fall or blow may chip off 

 or disunite a portion of them, and, if so, there are no means of forcibly 

 bringing the disunited parts together again, and retaining them in theii 

 natural position, the horse is then said to be down in the hijD. The power 

 of nature, however, will gradually unite them, but that union ■\^dll always 

 be attended by deformity and occasionally by lameness. A charge, or 

 very strong adhesive plaster, across the haunch may be useful, as helping, 

 in some slight degi-ee, to support the parts, and hold them together, 



THE THIGH. 

 In the lower and lateral part of the hip-bones is a deep cavity or cup for 

 the reception of the head of the thigh-bone. This, the true thigh-bone, is 

 so concealed by thick muscles that its situation and shape are not visible 

 to the eye. It is therefore frequently overlooked by horsemen, who call the 

 next bone, extending from the stifle to the hock, the thigh. In this 

 respect, it is analogous to the humerus or arm-bone of the f )re leg, which, 

 as before mentioned, lies as it were in the trunk, instead of being pendent 

 from it. So here the thigh-bone forms a portion of the trunk itself ; the 

 pendent portiou commencing at the stifle, the joint analogous to the knee- 

 joint in man. Although in the movement of the hind legs there cannot 

 be the concussion to wliich the fore legs are exposed (for the weight of 

 the body is seldom thrown violently upon them), yet in the powerful action 

 of these limbs there is much straui on the joints, and we shall, therefore, 

 find that there are, in all of them, admirable provisions against injiiry. The 

 head of the upper bone of the tliigh is received into the deep cup mentioned 

 above (the acetabulum), by which it is sm-rounded on every side ; this consti- 

 tutes the hip-joint, and dislocation from which would seem ahnost impossible. 

 But the bony cup may give way ? IS'ot so, provision is made against this. 

 All three of the hauncli-bones unite in the formation of this cup, and 

 the sutures by which they are held together are of such a nature, that 

 generally speaking, no shock, or exertion, or accident, can disunite them. 

 There is even something more in order to make the attachment doubly 

 sure. In addition to the usual capsular and other ligaments, a singularly 

 strong one rises from the base of the cup, and is inserted iuto the head of 

 the thigh-bone, called the ligamenhtm teres or round, ligament, seeming as if 

 it would render separation or dislocation altogether impossible. Such, 

 however, is the great power of the muscles of the hind limbs, that, with 

 all these attaclunents, sprain of the ligaments of the th'igh, or the round 

 hiive, as horsemen call it, and dislocation and even fracture of it, are occa- 

 sionallv found. 



