HOCKS AND KNEES WELL LET DOWN. 237 



part are good — is synonymous with "strong hocks." If we 

 find that a horse is not " tied-in " below the hock, and that 

 his gaskins are broad (/.<?. his os calcis long), we may rest 

 assured that his hocks are of good size. 



As the diseases and injuries of the hock belong to the 

 domain of equine surgery, and as I have investigated them 

 in Vetermary Notes for Horse-owners, I shall not allude 

 further to them here. The desirable absence of synovial 

 enlargements and of an undue amount of cellular tissue will 

 be indicated by the bones, tendons, and ligaments, and by 

 the hollows and eminences formed by them, being clearly 

 defined underneath the skin. 



The horse has on the inside of each hind limb, and a little 

 below the hock joint, a castor or chesnut somewhat similar 

 to that found in the fore leg {see p. 216). 



Hocks and Knees well let down. — There is no point 

 in the conformation of the horse, upon which more stress is 

 usually laid, than that which may be described in horsey 

 language as "hocks and knees well let down," or "hocks 

 and knees close to the ground." The cheetah [see PI. 2) has 

 this point well marked. The black buck, another speedy 

 animal, is, on the contrary, much longer from his hocks and 

 knees. From an examination of the comparative length of 

 the bones of the limbs (see pp. 161 and 162), we know that 

 the proportion of the length of the column of bones below the 

 knee and hock to that of the radius and tibia, respectively, 

 remains more or less constant. How then comes it, we may 

 well ask, that the idea of the hocks and knees of some horses 

 being better "let down," than those of other horses, has 

 gained currency ? As regards the fore limb, the answer is 

 easy ; for the knee of a leg which has a comparatively 



