sible with hind legs and if he cannot, without interference, 

 then they will have to go outside (see article on how to 

 widen hind action). 



VIII. KNEE AND ARM HITTING. 



This has been a great worry to "the smart set," "the 

 know it alls" for many years, as to what causes it, and 

 what to do to help or prevent it. Winging in is caused 

 sometimes by a deformity, or by contracted muscles or 

 ligaments strongeron one side of the leg than on the other; 

 sometimes deformed feet, or a badly contracted inside quar- 

 ter will be the cause of some of this trouble, because the 

 weight of the horse at the ankle drops over the inside heel 

 instead of coming down in the middle of the foot. A con- 

 tracted inside quarter and a high or long outside toe are 

 dangerous weapons for a horse to be carrying, one of these 

 at a time is bad enough, but when a foot is troubled with 

 both it is very bad. If your knee or ami hitter has a con- 

 tracted quarter on a front foot, the first thing to do is to 

 get a hoof expander and expand the contracted quarter. 

 This will be an important step towards getting the leg in 

 the middle of the foot. In all my experience with knee and 

 arm hitters I have found the offending foot too high on the 

 outside, with the most of the foot from the center of the 

 frog on the outside of the leg. With height and width of 

 foot on the outside of the leg, it is just contrary to science. 

 To straighten the line of action this needs to be reversed ; 

 edge up the outside edge of the foot from the outside toe 

 to the point at quarters as much as it will stand, do it at 

 every shoeing and you will be getting the leg closer to the 

 middle of the foot. If you can get a little more of the foot 

 on the inside of the leg than is on the outside, it will be a 

 benefit to a bad knee and arm hitter. Another thing, the 

 shorter the toe or angle of a knee hitter the easier he can 

 leave the ground and the less he will wing in, and the lighter 



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