74 FOltM AND ACTION. 



up, while the fetlocks bend down upon the ground. Not so after 

 division of the flexor tendons : we occasionally sever them by way 

 of remedy for " knuckling over," and all that results is, the enabling 

 or necessitating the animal to set his heel upon the ground : once 

 divide the suspensory ligament, however, and no power left is able 

 to maintain the pasterns erect. The suspensory ligament is, there- 

 fore, one of the mainsprings of the machine in action — one of the 

 chief of those beautiful contrivances, which, while they save the 

 leg-bones from being shivered to pieces under the force and shocks 

 they have to sustain at every bound and leap the animal makes, 

 insures himself and his rider ease and safety to their journey's end. 



I have instanced the Arabian and the racer as most strikingly 

 shewing the operation of the spring of the fetlock -joint, the limbs 

 of horses of high breeding being characteristically remarkable both 

 for the length and for the obliquity of their pasterns : other horses 

 will evince this springiness in proportion as their pasterns possess 

 the necessary length and obliquity, and such as have short and up- 

 right pasterns — cart and dray-horses — will possess it in the least 

 degree. Why should this be ? Was not elasticity and defence 

 against concussion required in the cart-horse ] Yes ! to a certain 

 degree ; but not in like degree with the property of strength : he is 

 an animal designed for feats of strength, his movements under such 

 performances being tardy and measured; altogether unlike the 

 race-horse, whose movements are required to be airy, and fleet, 

 and bounding, with loads of the lightest description upon his back. 



The late Professor Coleman — in his work on " The Foot of the 

 Horse" — has thrown excellent light upon this part of our subject : 

 " While the animal is at rest," says he, " and also during motion, 

 these (sesamoid) bones sustain part of the weight; and where 

 the pastern-joints are long and oblique, the sesamoid bones often 

 receive so much of the weight as to put the ligaments violently on 

 the stretch, and occasion lameness. This effect also may ensue in 

 consequence of the heels of the hoof being improperly cut down, or 

 the toe allowed to grow too long, or the heels being first raised by a 

 high-heeled shoe, and that suddenly changed for a shoe with thin 

 heels. All these causes, however, whether separate or combined, 

 do not operate with so much violence in the hind as in the fore legs. 



