EXAMINING THE LEGS. 109 



kicker. And as it is fifty to one that every broken-kneed 

 horse is a stumbler, and that every horse with white or 

 bare patches on his knees is both a broken-kneed horse 

 and a stumbler, no one should buy a horse with bare or 

 white patches on his knees. 



In Examining the Legs of a Hoese, the purchaser 

 should first stand with his face to the broadside of the horse 

 as he stands on flat ground, and observe whether he rests 

 perpendicularly on all his legs, having the natural propor- 

 tion of his weight on each leg straightly, squarely and di- 

 rectly ; or whether he stands with all his legs straddled 

 outside of their true aplomb ; or with all drawn together 

 under the centre of his belly, as if he were trying to stick 

 them all into a hat ; or lastly, whether he favors one or 

 more of his legs, either by pointing it forward or by placing 

 it in any position in which no weight at all or a very small 

 stress of weight is thrown upon it. A horse may appar- 

 ently favor one foot accidentally, from a casual impatience 

 or restlessness. He is not, therefore, to be rejected because 

 lie points a toe once or twice. But if he seem to do so, he 

 should be constantly brought back to the original position, 

 in which he must bear equally on each foot ; when, if he be 

 found constantly to favor the same foot in the same man- 

 ner, something serious must be suspected, which gives the 

 horse uneasiness and pain, though not perhaps sufficient in 

 degree to produce present lameness. If the toe of a fore 

 foot be persistently pointed forward, disease of the navicu- 

 lar, commonly known as the coffin bone, is to be suspected, 

 than wdiich no worse or less curable disease exists. If 

 both the fore feet are protruded and the hind feet thrown 

 back, as if the horse were about to stale, he has probably 

 been at some time foundered. If he stand with all his feet 

 drawn together under him, he is generally entirely used up, 

 and what is called groggy. If he stand with one or both 



