100 EAISING THE HEELS. 



These several matters I shall briefly consider in the order 

 stated ; and then conclude the present section with such 

 remarks and observations with respect to the general treat- 

 ment of the foot as the subject may require. 



EAisitra THE Heels. — The advantages which attend the 

 use of calkens to the heels of the hind feet shoes will become 

 obvious to the reader, if he reflects upon the difference of form 

 and structure between the fore and hind limbs ; and also upon 

 the different duties for which they are constituted and adapted. 



The limbs of a horse are not only columns for support, but 

 they also a series of levers and fulcrums. The bones of the 

 limbs are so placed as to present to the eye of an observer, a 

 succession of beautiful and ever-varying angles and curves. 

 The bones of the fore limbs are for the most part placed at 

 angles of an obtuse character ; while those of the hind limbs 

 are acute, or more abrupt in their general appearance. The 

 fore limbs during the act of locomotion are engaged in receiv- 

 ing, supporting, and carrying forward the weight which the 

 hind limbs are engaged in lifting and propelling onward ; and it 

 is this difference in their duties that constitutes the necessity 

 for the component parts of each being differently arranged. 

 The levers are the muscles and the tendons ; the fulcrums are 

 the bones, both as they exist in their single state, or arranged 

 as they are to form joints. Amongst the principal fulcrums or 

 centres of motion belonging to the hind limbs, are the hock 

 and the fetlock joints ; and experience has proved that these 

 joints, and the levers in connection with them, are the parts 

 most liable to injury from over exertion: the common con- 

 sequences of which (particularly if aided by predisposition 

 arising from imperfection of structure and bad formation of the 

 joints) are sprains, curbs, and spavins, — consequences which to 

 a certain extent are preventable, or where in existence, can 



