CHAP. III.] WHEN PROPER. RELAXED TENDONS. 487 



the heels until the tendon is divested of most of its 

 muscular covering, and it becomes naturally cool 

 and elastic *'. That race, or breed, of the horse 

 which has low pasterns, and high goers, are most 

 liable to break down upon being pushed. 



Symptom. — None precedes the actual breaking 

 down, or falling of the animal, though it sometimes 

 runs many yards with the large pastern protruding 

 through the skin upon the ground, in which state, 

 we have it upon record, the courageous animal has 

 come in and won the stakes, to obtain which it has 

 thus paid for with its life : in this case the suspensor 

 ligament has been ruptured or torn from its true 

 position f . Not always proceeding to this fright- 

 ful extremity, however, the animal is ascertained 

 to have broke down by the fetlock joint nearly 

 touching the ground : in this case the back sinew 

 and ligaments under it are found to have relaxed or 

 given way. 



Cure there is none, though ineffectual attempts 

 are usually made to doctor up the ruined animal for 

 sale. Apply the same remedies as those recom- 

 mended for strain of the back sinew in page 484 ? 

 of all which, firing promises the least benefit of 

 any. Yet does heat, atmospheric and animal heat, 



* The hand-rubbing causes lymphatic absorption of muscle, until 

 tendinous substance supplies its place, and as the former state had 

 been too fleshy and warm, so is the latter too cold and elastic. 



f At the Lancaster races, 1825, Sir P. Musgrave's Walton colt 

 broke down in the third heat. Soon afterwards the Tiresias colt of 

 General Sir John Byng also dropped down in a similar manner, but 

 at the covert side : it is said to have made a previous start forward. 



Y 4 



