THE HOCK. 7 



prominent. As to whether the leg for a running horse 

 should descend straight from the hock, or incline un- 

 der the body, neither should be in extreme : there is 

 a medium. The stride is said to be lengthened by 

 its being well bent under, yet, that there are objec- 

 tions, arising from the greater wear of the hock, that 

 greatly counterbalance this. Either for a racer, 

 charger, or hunter, a rather straight drop for an Arab 

 will be best and handsomest. In the high caste Arab, 

 it invariably does descend rather straight, but whe- 

 ther the leg from the hock is bent under or straight, 

 the hock itself must neither turn in nor out ; if the 

 former, he will be cat-hammed, making his legs like 

 an ill-shaped cow's, or, as the ladies say, donkey- 

 legged ; if the latter, which is not so often met with, 

 the toe will turn in, which is worse. For a running 

 horse, it is an advantage if the toe is behind the 

 stifle-joint. 



A BOXE SPAVIN in the clean hocks of an Arab, is 

 generally visible enough if situated at the top of the 

 splenfc-bone, that is, on the inner side of the lowermost 

 part of the hock. If he should be spavined higher up, 

 or the ligaments have been strained, it is not so easily 

 perceived as the former, but in either case both the 

 hocks will not look exactly alike ; and this will be 

 quite sufficient to reject him/* A small bone spavin 

 is often a most difficult disease to detect ; and this is 

 not extraordinary, considering that professional men 

 have in some instances been deceived, from not ex- 



* A horse is not always to be rejected on account of spavin, particularly if 

 it appears of long standing and there is no appearance of stiffness. Many 

 spavined horses work well to the last without falling lame. For a horse of 

 this description however, one third less ought to be given, than for a per- 

 fectly sound horse. ED. 



