CHAP. I.] CHANGE ; KNUCKLE OVER. 45 



Horses calculated for heavy draught have short 

 pastern bones, the small one entering the hoof 

 upright at the coronet in early life, but afterwards 

 changing as was said before ; and this new incli- 

 nation, it will be seen, must depress the bone, as 

 the animal acquires the sort of hoof called pom- 

 mice-footed, and causes a constant straining upon 

 the coronet; hence ringbone and the crippling, 

 insecure gait, horses of this description acquire, 

 even before they get old; and hence, also, those 

 numerous disorders of the sole, arising from con- 

 traction of the heels, that have but this one fault 

 for their common origin. 



Contracted heels of this or any other species of 

 horse, being thus destructive of its capability of 

 going, should be guarded against as much as any 

 other individual misfortune to which he is liable : 

 even a disposition thereto constitutes sufficient ground 

 for rejection. When this is the case, the interval 

 or cleft between the heels, seen in the annexed 

 scale, is found to be more or less tender, according 

 to the progress of the disease ; the* cleft will, in 

 health, receive two fingers lain in deeply, the part 

 having in it nothing unusual in the feel. Soon, 

 however, the heat increases, the part hardens, 

 and the cleft scarcely admits of a small finger ; 

 the horse flinches as if you touched a sore, and 

 nothing but time and treatment can restore him, 

 if any thing can. Most commonly, however, the 

 disease proceeds until the clefts of the heels meet 

 and become rotten. Pressure upon the frog, with 



