250 THROUGH STABLE AND SADDLE-ROOM. 



assure the reader that there are, comparatively 

 speaking, but very few people who are able to tell. 

 I have known even a veterinary surgeon mistaken 

 — more than once, too — though, of course, it 

 was inexcusable on his part to be unable to 

 say with certainty at once. A man has but 

 two legs, a horse has four. If the reader will 

 take the trouble to first of all note the action 

 of the forelegs, and carefully mark the cadence 

 as each foot comes to the ground, he will, if 

 the horse is lame in front, see at once that the 

 foot of the lame leg (except in cases of shoulder 

 lameness, when the toe is dragged along the 

 ground) is a shorter time on the ground than the 

 sound one. If the horse is not lame in front, he 

 must be lame behind. To detect which leg" is 

 equally easy with the hind legs as with the front. 

 Standing straight behind the horse, as he is trotted 

 away from you, watch the hocks as they are brought 

 up in succession, and the lame leg can at once be 

 detected. In cases where the lameness is verv 

 slight and difficult to catch, it is a good plan to 

 hold a stick horizontally in both hands, looking 

 under its under edge, bringing" the latter down to 

 such a level that, as the hocks are brought up, they, 

 as it were, touch it ; any difference in action can then 

 more readily be observed. The lame leg having been 



