82 FORM AND ACTION, 



reverse qualifications : he would carry greater Aveight, draw a 

 heavier load, and probably not so soon tire. But, perhaps, as was 

 observed on a former occasion, the hind limbs would do too much 

 for the fore in action, and the consequence would be — from the 

 fore legs not being able to act in consort with them and to " get 

 out of their way"— falling down, forwards. Another evil might 

 be, a most unpleasant jarring, stilty, falling-down sensation to the 

 rider, amounting, perhaps, to a total unfitness for the saddle, and 

 even incapacitating the horse for any thing but slow work in har- 

 ness. After all, therefore, however efficient his " good" hind quar- 

 ters may render him, want of any thing like commensurate " good- 

 ness" in his fore ones would render his admirable qualities behind 

 of little avail. In fine, we may and do, for certain purposes, such 

 as light pleasure riding and driving, &c, make good fore-quartered 

 horses very useful, although their hind parts are any thing but what 

 we would desire them to be ; but, for the reasons stated, the re- 

 verse conformation proves now and then such as to render the ani- 

 mal totally worthless, unless it be, as I said before, to go a foot's 

 pace in a higgler's or market-gardener's cart. 



THE HAUNCH AND THIGH. 



The divisions of the hind extremity are, the quarter, buttock 

 or haunch, the thigh, the cannon or leg, the pastern, the coronet, 

 and the foot : the joints connecting these parts to each other being, 

 the hip joint or round-bone joint, the stifle joint, the hock joint, the 

 fetlock joint, the pastern joint, the navicular joint, and the coffin 

 joint. 



When we come to examine the skeleton and consider the bones 

 of the hind extremity in reference to the parts denominated " thigh" 

 and " leg" in the living animal, we find the same discrepancy pre- 

 vailing as was noticed on a former occasion in regard to the fore 

 extremity. The os femoris, so named by anatomists because it 

 corresponds to what in the human skeleton is the true thigh-bone 

 — in the quadruped becomes an os ischii or haunch bone ; while 

 the tibia and fibula — the bones of our leg — appear in the horse 

 as ossa femoris or thigh bones. Pursuing this analogical investiga- 

 tion, we discover the heel of man to be converted into the hock of 



