DEFECTS IN THE GAITS. 587 



leaves no other mark than the forward deviation of the hairs and a 

 deposit of mud or dirt or of coloring matter with which the hoofs may 

 have been coated. 



If the defect be more severe and the contact of the moving member 

 produces pain, but without abrading the epidermis, it is expressed by 

 saying that the animal touches himself. 



He strikes or cuts himself when the injury is so intense as to make 

 a wound ; finally, when each member of the same biped, during pro- 

 gression, alternately gives and receives a blow which is always upon 

 the same place, we have the phenomena which essentially characterize 

 the vice interfering. The blows may be inflicted sometimes in one 

 place, sometimes in another, as happens in the race-horse during the 

 projection ; it is then said that the horse overreaches. 



Horses interfere more often behind than in front ; this is owing to 

 the fact that the separation between the hind-feet is generally less 

 marked than that between the fore-feet. 



These contusions may be situated in various places : the coronet, 

 the internal face of the fetlock or of the canon, and, more rarely, the 

 internal face of the knee and the inferior extremity of the forearm, of 

 which we have seen several instances. 



The wounds do not always present the same characters. If recent, 

 they are covered with blood ; if they have existed for some days, 

 they are covered by a scab. If, however, the contusions which 

 produce these lesions are frequently repeated, the latter will be cir- 

 cumscribed by hard, thick, and indurated borders. Finally, they are 

 situated, in certain cases, over osseous tumors ; we have found this 

 condition upon the two anterior members of a horse which interfered 

 at the inferior extremity of both forearms. 



Their gravity depends upon their depth, their seat, the frequency 

 of their repetition, and the nature of the parts involved. 



They are not accompanied by lameness, excepting sometimes, at 

 the moment of their production ; they always blemish the animal more 

 or less, according to the various causes which occasion them, and which 

 we will arrange into six principal classes : 



1st. Weakness, resulting from old age, privation, fatigue, excessive 

 work, and, in young horses, from poor nourishment and want of train- 

 ing. There is every hope, in the latter case, that the fault will disap- 

 pear under the influence of a better regimen and more judicious care, 

 which observation has demonstrated. 



2d. The faulty conformation in horses close behind, with long mem- 

 bers, too short a croup, wide and disproportionate feet, in those that 



