THE RACE HORSE. 17 



from tlie knee to the fetlock, cannot well be too 

 short, neither can they well be too broad or too 

 flat, nor their flexor tendon scarcely be too large, 

 or appearing too distinctly divided, as it were, from 

 the leg. The fetlock joint should also be large, 

 and the pastern proportionably strong, but its 

 length and obliquity should be in the medium. 



The wall or crust of the feet should also be mo- 

 derately oblique, with the heels open, and frogs 

 sound ; this, indeed, is generally the state of rac- 

 ing colts on first leaving their paddocks, if their 

 feet have been paid proper attention to during 

 the time they may have remained there. Yet the 

 feet of such of them as have been some time in 

 work, will occasionally get out of order ; they 

 grow upright and strong ; the horn gets hard and 

 brittle ; and the heels more or less contracted — 

 almost all of which defects are too often occa- 

 sioned from the want of proper attention being 

 paid to them at the time of shoeing, and of pro- 

 per applications being applied to them in the sta- 

 bles. With regard to the structure of such horses' 

 feet, and the diseases of them, as also the method 

 of shoeing and plating them, a description will be 

 found in the different chapters on those subjects 

 in the first volume. Previous to concluding my 



VOL. II. (.' 



