CONFORMATION OF FEET 245 



made, force the horse back by the bits and then turn 

 him to the right or left quickly. This will throw extra 

 weight on the rear legs, and the twisting motion given 

 to them by the turning will cause the animal to flinch 

 in case of an incipient spavin. 



The feet should be observed with the greatest care, 

 keeping in mind the work the horse will be called on 

 to perform. Feet which might not be seriously objec- 

 tionable if the horse is to be used at slow work in the 

 soft fields might be totally unsuited to fast work on 

 pavements. 



Horses which have a strong infusion of warm blood 

 frequently have naturally erect hoofs and rather high 

 heels. If this feature of the hoof be accentuated by 

 bad shoeing and previous fast road work, the foot may 

 be in danger of becoming so contracted as to produce 

 lameness, although the foot at the time of the examin- 

 ation appears normal. On the other hand, feet may 

 be so flat and open at the heel and the shell of the 

 hoof so weak as to endanger the usefulness of the 

 horse, and yet be technically sound. This class of 

 feet is most often found on horses of the draft type. 

 There is a happy medium between feet which are too 

 narrow at the heel and too erect and those which are 

 too open at the heel, too flat and deficient in bony 

 structure. The open flat foot often becomes injured 

 by the frog coming into too violent and intimate con- 

 tact with hard earth and stones, while the narrow- 

 heeled foot is more likely to be associated with 

 navicular troubles. 



