DEFECTS IN THE GAITS. 583 



3d. The vicious axis of the members, which renders the horse 

 under himself and low in front. 



4th. The excessive length of the posterior members in relation to 

 that of the anterior. 



5th. The deficient length of the body relative to its height. 



6th. The excessive length of the back and loins, implying too great 

 flexibility of the spinal column, and permitting the posterior members 

 to reach the anterior more easily. 



The action of all these it is easy to comprehend : 



First, it must be noticed that, in the first three conditions, the sur- 

 charge of the anterior members determines a longer contact of the 

 anterior feet with the ground, in consequence of an appreciable tardi- 

 ness in being raised. As a consequence of this delay, if the gait be 

 lengthened, the posterior feet, not finding the place free which they 

 should occupy, strike against their corresponding homologues, whence 

 the particular sound which announces that the horse forges. The 

 same result is produced, and for identical reasons, if the rider, badly 

 seated too far in front, surcharges the anterior limbs of his mount. 



In other cases, it is because the forward displacement of the pos- 

 terior member is greater than in ordinary conditions, or that its play 

 cannot be entirely accomplished, from the insufficient extent of the 

 field of oscillation under the body. It will then reach the anterior mem- 

 ber at the end of its contact or the commencement of its elevation. 



There are horses which, in the trot, forge almost at each step. We 

 have known several which had to be put to another kind of work, and 

 could only be employed at a walk. Fortunately, this extreme measure 

 need not always be resorted to. 



There are, in fact, some means of remedying this defect when it 

 results from a bad conformation. 



Thus, the elevation of the head and the neck, either directly, 

 through proper intervention of the rider, or indirectly, by making the 

 rein shorter, can relieve the anterior members and displace upon the 

 posterior a portion of the weight which overburdened the former. 

 This, however, is not the only remedy. Special shoeing, applied 

 rationally, is often the most efficacious treatment. The principal 

 object, as H. Bouley has so well expressed, will be to diminish as 

 much as possible the volume of the parts concerned at the points 

 where they strike each other. It will consist, in the hind-foot, in the 

 diminution of its antero-posterior diameter at the expense of the 

 toe, and, at times, in incrusting the shoe in the horn, which then pro- 

 jects in front ; in the fore-foot, in shortening the branches of the shoe. 



