DECREASED STRAIN ON THE TENDON, 75 



the coinments being copied from Miles' essay. He very forcibly ex- 

 plains why the long shoe was bad, and if so bad, the argument was 

 still stronger for leaving the posterior part of the foot as nature 

 made it. The high heel has the same bad effect as a long shoe, with 

 the addition of being still worse from placing the bones in a more 

 upright position, the baleful influence extending to when the animal 

 is not in motion. The cut does not show the whole of the coronet 

 bone, as Miles terms it, though it is usually called the lower pastern 

 bone ; below that is the navicular or shiittle bone, and the cofiin or 

 pedal bone, The front part of the latter retains about the same ob- 

 liquity as the two above it. The na\4cular is a transverse bone, 

 and the union of three form the joint which is the most susceptible 

 of injury of any in the frame of the horse, not even excepting that 

 of the hock. The tendon passes under the navicular bone, resting 

 upon the sensitive frog, an inch or more back from the point. It is 

 evident that if the heel is raised more than is natural, that the angle 

 ■will be more upright, and a wrong " set " given to the navicular 

 joint, and this is followed by the upper pastern bone, and again by 

 the cannon, in order to restore the harmony of position which has 

 been disturbed. This can only be carried as high as the knee, which 

 is " sprung " forward to relieve that joint as much as possible. 

 Therefore it is palpable that the elevation of the heel gives a wi'ong 

 placing of the bones, and this must exert an influence on the ten- 

 dons and ligaments, which is injurious. All ai-e aware of the ex- 

 haustion which results from keeping one position, especially if that 

 be an unusual one. 



The arm held at right angles from the body can only be sustained 

 for a short time, and to stand in a rigid postui-e can only be endured 

 for a few minutes. It may be that the trouble begins long before 

 the actual injury, and the constraint arising from the abnormal 

 placing of the feet and limbs is the commencement of the difliculty. 



As has been stated in prior articles, experience has shown that in 

 every horse of mine which has given way in the tendons, there has 

 been something wrong vnth. the feet. Very trivial, perhaps, and 

 only noticeable after the strictest scrutiny, yet not in a truly natural 

 condition. A slight contraction, narrowing and hai'dness of that 



