Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



441 



The thighs should be very wide and should bulge with muscle, and 

 the quarters should be very deep and heavy. The stifle should like- 

 wise be heavily muscled, and there should be great width through the 

 hindquarters from stifle to stifle. Viewed from the side, the thigh 

 should be very wide from stifle to end of body. 



The gaskins, like the forearms, should be very wide and bulging 

 with muscle. 



Hocks. — Suppose we have a pair of ton horses hitched to a big 

 load. When the word is given to start, the horses extend and lower 

 their heads, lean against the collar, crouch down behind by bringing 

 their hind feet forward and flexing their hocks, and then the pull of 



Fig. 166. — Six high-class well-matched dralt geldings owned by Chestnut 

 Farms, Walkersville, Md. , 



the powerful muscles of the hindquarters extends the hock joint and 

 straightens the hind leg, thus bringing great pressure against the collar, 

 and the load moves. The point to be remembered is that an enor- 

 mous strain comes upon the hock, and if there is any weakness in that 

 joint it is certain to cause trouble. The hock must be large, clean, 

 wide both ways, and deep, and the point of the hock should be promi- 

 nent. It should be straight from top to bottom. Hocks that are 

 badly sickled, bowed outward, or cow hocked are not stout enough to 

 match the strength of the muscles above. They thus limit the power 

 of the horse and are likely to become unsound. Fleshiness and puff's 

 are distinctly objectionable. Thick, meaty hocks are too common in 



