128 THE HORSE. 



pastern joints, is an evidence of natural weakness in 

 those parts, inducing irregular action, by striking and 

 wounding the legs, on which sundry cautions have 

 been already given. Going hammer and pincers to- 

 gether, points to over-reaching, or the hinder toes 

 striking the fore heels, one of the most perilous de- 

 fects of the saddle horse, since it has so often hap- 

 pened, that from the hinder and foreshoes being inter- 

 locked, the horse has come down in a mode the most 

 probable to inflict the severest injury upon the 

 rider. String halt, or a convulsive qatching up of the 

 hinder legs, is not deemed a mark of unsoundness ; 

 but in excess is an unsightly defect, though gene- 

 rally of tough and good horses. The elder Tatter- 

 sall used to say, that he scarcely recollected a bad 

 string halted horse. The hoofs described as defective 

 are contrasted by the dark whole coloured, shining, 

 and tough-horned hoof, of appropriate size to the 

 size of the horse, neither deep nor flat, with a wide 

 and open heel, substantial bars, and dry, tough, 

 and sufficiently enlarged frogs. Splents, spavins, 



RINGBONES, CAPPED HOCKS, QU1TTOR, AND 

 FALSE QUARTERS, AND CRACKS, CORNS, BRUISES, 



or running thrushes, have been described in 

 the Section on the Les;s. It is needless to direct the 

 attention of a buyer to the eyes of a horse in the 

 first instance ; but he may be reminded of the occa- 

 sional hereditary and constitutional blindness of that 

 animal, of which there may be indications, the horse 

 being young, though his sight may not be yet mate- 

 rially affected. It is an ancient stable warrant, that 



