THE FETLOCK. 75 



The additional weight of the head and neck to be sustained bv the 

 fore legs, renders all their springs more liable to injury and decay 

 than the corresponding parts behind." 



Although the fore limbs actually support more weight than the 

 hind, and receive shocks of concussion unknown to the latter, and 

 on these accounts become the ordinary seats of lameness, and are 

 often seen worn out while the hind legs continue serviceable, yet, 

 we must not pass by unnoticed that which, in this instance, would 

 seem to have escaped the observation of the Professor, viz. the 

 great deal the hind legs have to do as the agents of progression, 

 and the consequent frequency of failure in the hind fetlock-joints. 

 We know that many of our first hunters and racers become inca- 

 pacitated from what is called " breaking down behind ;" and we 

 have no reason to feel surprise at this, when we consider the work 

 these joints have to perform in progression : next to the hock, in- 

 deed, there is no part of the hind limb so forced and strained as the 

 fetlock. One of the best race-horses this country ever produced — 

 the Colonel — failed from this cause ; and no effort on the part of 

 Mr. Goodwin could set him up again upon the turf. Harness 

 horses, employed in laborious draught, are very apt to fail in their 

 hind fetlocks, these being the joints upon which so much stress is 

 made in strenuous efforts in drawing up hill or along heavy roads. 

 The greater the exertion the fetlock-joint is put to, the greater the 

 flexion of it, and consequent stress or strain upon the sesamoids 

 and their tendinous and ligamentary supports, producing either 

 overstretch of them, or laceration of some of their component fibres 

 at the moment, and thus occasioning immediate lameness; or else, 

 by a repetition of effort, in time impairing or destroying their elas- 

 tic properties, and thus inducing that relaxation and puffiness of 

 the joint which we constantly observe in horses who have been, in 

 the manner described, for years subjected to hard work. 



Two circumstances, then, influence the quantum of stress or 

 weight imposed upon the sesamoids, — the degree of flexion of the 

 fetlock-joint, and the position, straight or oblique, of the pastern; 

 and both these circumstances are, in a measure, under our control. 

 We cannot, it is true, lengthen or shorten the pastern ; but it is in 

 our power, by means of shoeing, to alter the position of it : " The 

 heels of the hoof being improperly cut down, or the toe allowed to 



