IX] 



SURGICAL DISEASES AND CONFORMATION 



121 



muscles inside the thighs should be well 

 developed, and continue down so as to give the 

 gracilis region a plump appearance. (P. iiib.) 



The tibia, or gaskin, should slope at an angle 

 of 65° to 70° with the ground. (P. iOO.) 



The patella should be well developed. (P. 

 15a, 113a.) 



485. The hock is one of the most important 

 parts of the horse's anatomy from the point of 

 view of conformation. It should be clean, firm, 

 prominent and large, and without any puffiness 

 or filling-in between the various prominences. 



The point of the hock (formed by the process 

 of the OS calcis) should be large and strong, and 

 should be separated, as it were, from the leg 

 above. The distance between the point of the 

 hock and the bottom of the front of the hock 

 should be great ; such a hock is " well let down." 

 (P. 2ib, Q7b, 686. Compare with P. 26b, lie, 

 96a. See P. 99, 100.) 



The hind cannon should be short, the tendons 

 well set back, and there should be good width 

 on top at the base of the hock. The hind cannon 

 bone is larger than the fore. 



The hind pastern should be similar to the 

 fore, but this is not of such importance. The 

 hind is not subjected to the same amount of 

 concussion. 



The hind foot should be well rounded. The 

 tendency is for the hind feet to be too much 

 pointed. The slope of the front of the wall 

 should be 50° with the ground. (P. 636, 666. 

 Compare with P. 57a, 60d.) 



486. Action. — The action must be free, level 

 and straight, i.e. true. A horse that walks well 

 usually trots and canters satisfactorily. The foot 

 should be well raised up and fairly flexed, with- 

 out being turned more than pprhaps a very little 

 in or out. The foot should be placed flat on the 

 ground, the shoe wearing equally all over. In 

 trotting, the hocks must be properly flexed. All 

 action should commence from the top of the 

 limb. In front, from the shoulder, and not 

 merely from the knee ; whilst, behind, it should 

 commence from the thigh. (P. 43.) 



In the gallop the hindlegs should be brought 

 well under the body and the body carried near 

 to the ground. 



High action is of little use except for appear- 

 ance. Hackney fanciers like it, but it is a fad, 

 and with some people it is carried to such an 

 extreme, by means of very heavy shoes, that it 

 becomes a mere fake. High action destroys speed 

 and destroys the horse's legs and feet. 



487. Colour. — Whatever the colour may be, it 

 must be good of its kind, i.e. not light. Par- 

 ticularly should the horse's points (extremities) 

 be dark. Chestnuts, browns, bays, roans, duns, 

 etc., which are lighter in colour at the extremities 

 of the limbs are generally weak in constitution. 

 This is probably due to the circulation in the 

 washy parts being poor. When the colour of a 



Q 



horse is doubtful, the muzzle is the guide ; for 

 instance, a black body with a brown muzzle is 

 a brown horse, but with a black muzzle is a 

 black horse. 



A grey with a black mane and tail is an iron- 

 grey (P. 46, blh, 636), but a grey with a dark 

 body and a white mane and tail is a black-grey 

 (P. 57^, 836). Yellow-coloured horses with light 

 or white manes and tails are called creams. 

 Those with black manes and tails, duns. A 

 chestnut must have a chestnut mane and tail ; if 

 these are black, then the horse is either brown 

 or bay. 



A shiny black is called jet-black. Black horses 

 and other colours change considerably between 

 summer and winter. Summer-blacks are dark 

 brown in the winter. 



A horse with a few white hairs scattered 

 about the body is known as a flecked brown, 

 black, chestnut, or whatever his colour may be. 



White horses with brown patches are called 

 skewbald. Those with black patches, piebald. 



A white horse with small black patches all 

 over its body is called a spotted-grey. The 

 reverse, a black with many white spots, is called 

 a starred horse. A dappled-grey is a white horse 

 with various small ring-like markings on its 

 body, particularly on its hindquarters ; they vary 

 considerably in design. (P. 104a, 133, 1366?.) 



488. Natural Marks. — A star is a round or 

 star-shaped white spot on the forehead from one 

 to three inches in diameter. 



A snip is a white strip down the muzzle, in 

 front or at the side. 



A race is a narrow white strip down the face. 

 It may extend to the star or it may be separate ; 

 it may extend to the snip or be separate. 



A blaze is a broad white streak covering the 

 whole face, or part of the face, down to the 

 mouth. 



A white stocking is a white leg below the 

 knee or hock. If marked higher up it is known 

 as a high stocking. 



A white sock is the leg that has the fetlock 

 and pastern, and a little above the fetlock, white. 



There are also white fetlocks, white coronets, 

 white heels, and white hoofs. White hoofs are 

 not, as a rule, so strong as dark ones ; they seem 

 to lack vitality. 



Natural white hairs in the mane and tail are 

 not uncommon marks. Natural marks must not 

 be confounded with blemishes which are the 

 result of saddle or harness injuries, etc. 



Some dun-coloured horses have a black- 

 striped marking extending down the back from 

 the mane to the tail. 



489. Various breeds of horses are shown in 

 the photographs in this book. There is one breed 

 in particular that, I am thankful to say, is 

 becoming more popular, and that is the Arab. 



The English thoroughbred is in reality an 

 Arab — at least, it came from the Arab — and more 



