126 HANDBOOK OF THE TUEF. 



shoes for heavy ones, and vice versa will sometimes cure hop- 

 ping. Difference in the length of stride of fore feet, arising 

 from faulty conformation or other irregularity, will often 

 cause the horse to go crooked behind. In such cases it can be 

 remedied by adding more weight to the foot which steps the 

 shortest. 



Hopples; Hobbles. A device used for changing the 

 gait of a horse from a pace to a trot ; from a trot to a pace, or 

 for holding a horse steady at either gait. There are several 

 patterns. They are usually made of leather, covered with 

 lambswool, wdth elastic connections by which to draw the leg 

 back to the gait desired. They are changable, and may be so 

 adjusted as to act as cross straps, or in a straight line from 

 fore to hind legs. 



Horny Sole. A concave plate contained within the 

 lower margin of the wall of the horse's foot covering the lower 

 face of the pedal bone. It is thickest around its outer border 

 where it joins the wall, and thinnest in the center where it is 

 most concave. It is less dense and resisting than the wall of 

 the hoof, and is designed more to support weight than to stand 

 wear. It has a characteristic of breaking off in flakes on the 

 ground face when the fibers become long. 



Horse. A well known and most noble domestic animal 

 of the genus Equus ; family Equid?e ; sub-order Perissodactyla, 

 (odd-toed) ; order Ungulata, (hoofed) ; class Mammalia. The 

 name of a genus corresponds to the surname or family name 

 of persons of civilized nations, but in the language of science 

 it always precedes the specific name, which corresponds to our 

 given or Christian name. The horse is distinguished from all 

 other members of the Equidae, by the long hairs of the tail 

 being more abundant and growing from the base as well as 

 from the ends and sides ; and also by possessing a small bare 

 callosity on the inner side of the hind leg, just below the hock, 

 as well as one on the inner side of the forearm above the knee, 

 common to all the genus. The mane is longer and more flow- 

 ing, the front part of it drooping over the forehead, forming 

 the forelock ; the ears are shorter, the limbs longer, the feet 

 broader and the head smaller. By the agency of man horses 

 are now diffused throughout almost the whole of the inhabited 

 portions of the globe, and the great modifications they have 

 undergone, in consequence of domestication and selection in 

 breeding, are well illustrated by comparing such extremes as 

 the Shetland pony, dwarfed by scanty food and a rigorous 

 climate, standing from 9.2 to 10.2 hands high; the thorough- 

 bred race-horse of 16.2 hands high, and the gigantic London 



