128 CARE AND TRAINING OF TROTTERS AND PACERS. 



fault of the leg, shoulder or hip, due to a faulty 

 direction of the joints, and therefore also of the 

 intermediate bones, a remedy may become perma- 

 nent to counteract that direction, but if a defect 

 was acquired through faulty leveling of the foot 

 or wrong shoeing, a correction either in the paring 

 of the hoof or in the shape or the weight of the 

 shoe will soon remove the bad habits acquired. In 

 such a case the remedy will again have to be ad- 

 justed to the resulting change so that no damage 

 be done by retaining the original remedy too long. 

 In other words, by such a correction a gradual 

 change was brought about in the tissues of the 

 muscles and tendons, and as these tissues supply 

 the necessary strengthening, the gait will be 

 changed for the better. In all such investigations 

 of faulty gaits some sort of proof is at all times 

 necessary to show (i) the origin of the defect and 

 (2) the effect of the applied remedy. Without 

 such a proof in black and white as the various 

 measurements of the distances between the four 

 feet furnish one can never be fully convinced of 

 the correctness or the effectiveness of the remedy. 



I shall now enumerate a few defects that can be 

 easily seen either while the horse is moving or by 

 the evidence on his boots. 



(1) Knee Hitting. 



A vicious outward direction of the cannon bone 

 due to a wrong or oblique articulation of the knee 

 joint will result in the "toeing out" of the foot 



