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CHAPTER XXI. 



ACTION, HANDINESS AND CLEVERNESS. 



Action. — General Remarks on Action.- — The three chief 

 requisites of action, frorri a useful point of view, are : sure- 

 footedness, effectiveness, and Hghtness, so that the hmbs 

 may not unduly suffer from the effects of concussion. As 

 remarked many years ago by Dr. Carson, the safety of a 

 horse's action depends on the way he puts his feet down, 

 rather than on the manner in which he picks them up. 

 We should therefore, from this point of view, attach no 

 value to high action, beyond what is sufficient to enable 

 the animal to avoid striking his toes against any inequalities 

 that may be on the surface over which he is going. The 

 stability of the fore hmb, when the foot comes on the 

 ground, depends, to a great extent, on the knee being 

 kept straight, which is mechanically done, without the 

 expenditure of muscular force, if a line drawn from the 

 heel to the centre of the elbow joint, falls at that 

 moment in front of the centre of the knee joint. The 

 more upright the pastern, the further will this line be 

 drawn back as regards the position of the knee. As the 

 shoulder-blade and pastern are at opposite ends of the 

 column of bones of the fore limb, and as they both 

 slope in the same direction, it follows that the degree of 

 slope of the shoulder will influence that of the pastern. 

 Hence, for safe action we should seek for oblique 

 shoulders, sloping and long pasterns, knees in which there 



