HANDBOOK OF THE TUllF. 91 



Fencer. [Eng.] A term applied to a horse that has been 

 trained to jumping or taking fences. 



Feral. Unbroken. The colt, when untamed, is said to 

 be in his feral state, or condition. 



Feinur. The thigh bone. In the horse it is compara- 

 tively short and stout, and placed very obliquely, the lower end 

 advancing by the side of the body, and being so little detached 

 from it that the knee-joint appears to belong as much to the 

 trunk as to the limb. 



Fetlock. The joint which the cannon-bone makes with 

 the i^astern ; anatomically, the metacarpo-articulation. Fetlock 

 signifies the tuft of hair growing behind the pastern joint, and 

 also the joint itself, and the enlargement made by the bones 

 which form it. 



Fetter Bone. The great pastern or first phalangeal 

 bone of the horse's foot, succeeded by the coronary and cofiin 

 bone and articulating with the cannon bone at the fetlock joint; 

 the proximal phalanx. 



Fettle. Condition ; form ; in fine order, as, " he is in 



splendid fettle to-day." 



No iinimal ever came to the post in more superb fettle than Newmarket 

 when he won the St. Leger of 1851.— The IJachninton Library : Racing, 

 The Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire, and W. G. Craven. 



Field. All the runners or trotters in any race; the 

 horses in a race as opposed to the favorite. To "chop the 

 field " is said of a horse that outstrips the rest, literally beats 

 them. 



Field Marshal of Trainers. A term applied to the 

 eminent driver, the late Hiram Woodruff. 



Fielders. Those who buy on the field in the pools, 

 against the choicest or favorites. 



Fig-hting- the Bit. The action of the horse in train- 

 ing, when dissatisfied with the bit or check, and becoming irri- 

 tated by them ; he is then said to " fight the bit." 



Why some horses like an over-check and some a side-check, and why- 

 certain bits must be used on certain horses, it is often hard to 

 explain ; but the one fact confronting the trainer is that the moiUh 

 innst be kept right, and the liead rigged with clieck and bit which 

 the liorse will not resent and fight, if satisfactory results are to be 

 accomplislied. — Training the Trotting Horse, Charles Marvin. 



Figliting" the Flag". A horse is said to be fighting the 

 flag which is trying by hard work to save his distance ; that is, 

 to get within the distance post before the flag drops. 



Fileree. The common or trivial name in California for 

 a plant known as Alfierilla, erroneously called a "grass." It 

 grows rank and horses are very fond of it. Charles Marvin 



