DEFECTS OF THE LEG3 111 



sometimes weakness. A knock-kneed or bow -kneed hc/rse, 

 before, is like a knock-kneed or bow-kneed man : if tlie 

 former, weak and sbaky on his legs ; if the latter, a clumsy 

 mover, and, in the case of the horse, almost sure to inter- 

 fere, or strike one leg with the inner edge of the hoof of 

 the other — a very bad and, in some cases, very dangerous 

 fault. If, behind, the hocks are drawn in and the shanks 

 diverge outwardly, the horse is said to be cat-hammed or 

 cow-hocked; and this is a serious malformation, an un- 

 gainly defect, and a cause and sign of weakness. If, on 

 the contrary, the hocks and legs are unusually wide apart, 

 so that the animal straddles in going, while it is a decided 

 point of strength, and consequently no defect in a mere draft 

 horse, it is yet ungainly and against a high degree of speed, 

 especially in a galloper. Some trotters of great speed have 

 been straddlers behind ; and when this is the case and the 

 animal is needed for harness only, as it is a sure mark of 

 strength, it is not to be avoided, although ungainly ; for a 

 saddle-horse it is decidedly objectionable, since it produces 

 a style of action which is extremely disagreeable to the 

 aider. 



His examination concluded, the purchaser must examine 

 the several legs, for distinct marks of structural unsound- 

 ness. The chief of these are, in the fore legs, splents, dam- 

 aged bach sinews, and ringbones or side bones — in the hind 

 legs, bone, blood, or bog spavins ; curbs, which have been de- 

 scribed above ; thorough pins, and, as in the fore legs, ring- 

 bones or side bones. 



Splents are small excrescences of the bone, extruding 

 laterally from the canon bones, or shanl^s ; they sometimes 

 produce lameness, if so near to the knee as to interfere 

 with the action of the joint, or so far back as to interfere 

 with the plav of the back sinews. If on the middle of the 

 bone, and dm^Iv midway between the knee and fetlock, 



