FORGING, OVER-REACHING AND 

 CLICKING 



This Paper Won the Prize Given by The American Veterinary 

 Review for the Best Essay on This Subject 



That very disagreeable and annoying fault of 

 striking the forefeet with the hind ones during 

 progression, variously referred to as "clicking," 

 "over-reaching" and "forging," is one to which 

 some horses are predisposed ; but it is excited by 

 a number of conditions which can, as a rule, be 

 remedied by rational treatment, even in some in- 

 stances where there is a predisposition. Forg- 

 ing is the result of any cause that prevents a 

 horse from getting his forefeet out of the way of 

 his hind ones, in progression. 



Undue shortness of body is a frequent predis- 

 posing cause, but one must not fall into the error 

 frequently made of assuming that a short-backed 

 horse is necessarily a short-bodied one. A horse 

 may have a short back but long quarters, caus- 

 ing him to stand over a lot of ground or be what 

 is called "long underneath," and be anj^thing 

 but short-bodied, and in fact possessing the ideal 



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