action, the majority of them do not know how to hold the 

 leg to look at the bottom of the foot to tell which side is 

 highest. They should keep in mind while fixing the foot, 

 the results they are trying to get; if they do not, they are 

 liable to get the foot too low on one side or the other. 

 A hind foot that is left the highest on the inside is a dan- 

 gerous weapon to a trotter or pacer; it will cause injury to 

 ankle ligaments and to bones of the foot. In the majority 

 of cases the angle of a hind foot should be several degrees 

 shorter than the angle of the front feet. A hind foot that 

 is left the highest on the inside on a trotter or pacer will 

 have a tendency to close up the line of action of the hind 

 leg and create crossfiring and shin, hock, ankle and pas- 

 tern hitting. As the coffin or pedal bone of a horse's foot 

 is symmetrical in shape, it is not proper to have wings of 

 abnormal growth more on one side of the foot than on the 

 other, for this constitutes an unbalanced foot. If it 

 measures more on one side of the foot than on the other, 

 from the center of the frog, make both sides alike, to 

 balance up matters and to conform with the shape of the 

 coffin bone inside; if the toe of one foot is longer than 

 that of the other it creates a longer leverage to leave the 

 ground from, therefore the stride of that leg would natu- 

 rally be a little longer, everything else being equal. If the 

 heels of one foot are left higher than those of its mate, 

 the stride would be a little shorter and the jar or concus- 

 sion greater. A good rule in fixing hind feet is, always 

 cut or rasp the inside of foot down first, because you can 

 always get the outside of a hind foot cut down to the level 

 of the inside. A foot should be fixed so that the leg will 

 be kept in the middle of the foot. If the foot has a con- 

 tracted quarter, one side or the other, you cannot do it 

 until the contracted quarter is expanded, which is easily 

 done (see article on contracted feet). It is difficult to fix 

 feet to suit the leg, and line of action, and also some people's 



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