52 THE HORSE 



soundness or unsoundness of a horse. Defective con- 

 formation is very common, and may be observed either 

 when the animal is at rest, or, and very often is, only 

 noticed during its movement, viz. the walk or the trot. 



Many cart horses cross their front feet when they walk 

 — hand over hand — and may, in this manner, easily 

 tread on the coronet — always a nasty injury, producing 

 severe lameness. 



Defective action of this nature does not warrant the 

 author to recommend purchase, no matter how excellent 

 the animal in other respects. There is also another defect 

 of action, the converse of this, viz. feet turned outwards 

 — splay feet. A heavy draught horse should bend both 

 knees and hocks freely, and lift the feet well off the 

 ground both when walking and trotting, although the 

 former is the pace for this class of animal. It is wonderful 

 what differences exist in action of horses, although the 

 ordinary observer may not notice such. 



Sometimes a cart horse has good action in front and 

 poor action behind ; more rarely the converse applies. 

 Far too httle attention is paid by breeders of heavy 

 draught horses towards the improvement of action. 



Buyers seldom study this when selecting. The author 

 insists that good action is just as important in this class 

 of horse as in any other breed. 



The intending buyer should select a horse with bone 

 and substance, i.e. strong and broad forearms, broad 

 knees with thin skin covering the short and broad cannons. 

 Commonly cart horses are very deficient in bone below 

 the knees. A great deal of importance should be attached 

 to this statement. A super-abundance of fine silky hair 

 in the latter region is indicative of good breeding, but a 

 moderate amount of it is preferable. Good feet are a 

 sine qua non — old saying, no foot, no horse, is an absolute 

 truism. The feet demand special attention, and the most 

 critical inspection is expedient. 



The normal slope of the wall is from 45 to 50 or 55 



