UPRIGHT PASTERNS, 19S 



came nearly down to the ground at each step — so oblique 

 were his pasterns. Their bones, though long and sloping, 

 were, however, of good substance. My experience among 

 horses in many lands leads me to the conclusion that the 

 drier the country in which they are bred and reared, the 

 more sloping are their pasterns. I advance no theory in 

 support of this instance of the *' survival of the fittest,'* which 

 I give merely for what it is worth. Australian horses, I may 

 mention, have their pasterns more oblique than English 

 horses (though practically of the same blood), and are 

 consequently better fitted for work on hard ground. As 

 the shoulder-blade and pastern are at the opposite ends of 

 the spring made by the bones of the fore limb, we may 

 infer that they should be more or less at the same slope. 

 Hence, if it be desirable that a horse should have oblique 

 shoulders, he should also have well sloped pasterns, which 

 is a term that had best be accepted as indicating a conditior 

 of limb, in which the fetlock and pastern joints have free 

 play. 



The two curses which remain on English thoroughbreds 

 are upripfht pasterns and roaring-. The former condition is 

 such a common defect that it generally passes without 

 notice, and is accepted by the ignorant as the proper kind 

 of conformation. Of the two, I certainly think that undue 

 straightness of pastern is the cause of the turf career of more 

 English horses being cut short than is roaring. Examples 

 of this fatal shape are but too common. 



As I have already said, the defect of uprightness of 

 pastern in the fore limb (want of " play " in the joints of the 

 fetlock and pastern), not alone militates against the speed 

 of a horse by causing him to suffer to an undue extent from 

 the injurious effects of concussion ; but also tends to decrease 

 his power of raising his fore hand by the straightening of the 

 fore limb, as we see done in Figs. 128, 129, 130, and 131. 

 It is evident that when the fetlock and pastern joints possess 

 but little mobility, there will be only a slight descent of the 

 fetlock joint, and consequently their ''play'* will affect but 



