VICES AND UNSOUNDNESS OF THE HORSE. 557 



weak cord, will sometimes break away ; and when once he 

 has learned that he can do this, he will ever afterward be 

 trying his halter, and two or three times breaking will con- 

 firm the habit. The only remedy is to provide a halter too 

 strong to be broken. 



. . OVEREEACHING AND INTERFERING. 



Overreaching and interfering are perhaps not so properly 

 classed under the head of vices as under that of infirmities. 

 The first results in consequence of the horse's having more 

 power and nervous action in his hind than in his fore-legs. 

 The toe of his hind foot strikes against the heel of the fore- 

 foot, and, wh.en the horse is shod, there is a peculiar, disa- 

 greeable sound of the iron shoes hitting together. Besides 

 the unpleasantness of this defect to a rider or driver, "a horse 

 afflicted by it is constantly injuring himself by cutting the 

 heel of the fore-foot, often laming himself seriously. 



When the horse strikes the fore-foot on one side against 

 the ankle of the other, in the act of stepping, he is said to 

 interfere. Such a horse will nearly always have the inside of 

 one or both ankle-joints cut ajid bleeding, and be continally 

 halting and limping from the effects of these bruises. Horses 

 that are very narrow in the chest, and whose legs are not 

 very closely together, are obviously more liable to this 

 trouble than others. 



Much may be done to remedy interference by paring the 

 hoof close and round on the inside, and keeping the shoe- 

 nails from projecting outward ; but nothing will entirely cure 

 a bad case of interference. Plenty of good, wholesome food, 

 to make the horse fat, will spread his legs somewhat further 

 apart, and partially remedy the defect, which, in fact, is often 

 an effect of leanness and hunger. 



STUMBLING. 



Stumbling is also rather an infirmity than a vice. It re- 

 sults from a natural fault in the shape of the hoof and foot, 

 and also from a stiffness of the knee. The legs of stumbling 



