THE HORSE 81 



years. The disease called splint is an abnormal 

 deposit of bone between the splint bone and the 

 cannon bone, caused probably most frequently by 

 sprain of the interosseous ligament and subsequent 

 inflammation. The inflammation may, however, 

 be set up in other ways. The jar of trotting 

 along a hard road, a blow, or indeed any violent 

 shock to the leg of a young horse may be sufii- 

 cient to cause it, and the fact that it is so much 

 commoner to find a splint on the fore than on 

 the hind legs is due to the fact that the latter are 

 far less subject to concussion than the former. 



Splints seem to occur more frequently on the 

 inside rather than the outside of the leg, and are 

 always higher up than the bulbous termination, 

 with which, therefore, they need never be con- 

 founded. Presumably, during the natural course 

 of evolution, the tendency is for the splint bones 

 to become shorter and permanently welded to the 

 cannon bones at an early age. Until this desirable 

 result is consummated in all horses, however, 

 splints will continue to be a prevalent source of 

 trouble. 



Splints are serious or not, as mentioned in the 

 first chapter, according to their position, their 

 number, size, and activity, and the class of work 



