62 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
continual action ; and on this account it seems to me that such 
horses can never profoundly sleep, for if they did they would fall, 
the same as we see horses with lethargic affections occasionally 
doing. I have seen lethargic horses repeatedly fall from sleeping 
standing, even while they have been in harness. From which it 
would appear that a degree of consciousness is required even to 
sustain the standing posture ; and, therefore, it is, I repeat, that it 
seems to me that horses who never lie down, although they may, 
and apparently do, sufficiently take their rest, yet never can sleep 
soundly or perfectly. 
The act we have been considering I shall denominate the stand- 
ing posture , to distinguish it from two other acts of standing, one of 
which I shall call the natural standing position, the other the arti- 
ficial standing position. 
The standing POSTURE is that into which the horse throws 
himself for ease or repose, and in which one of the limbs continues 
in a state of flexion or absolute rest, and this almost invariably a 
hind one, while the remaining three are maintained in a state of 
extension; the fore legs being commonly directed backward, as when 
the horse is said to be “ standing over,” that being the position — • 
and not the straight one — which to them appears to confer the 
greatest ease. In some rare instances horses — such as are “ stilty 
before” — will stand with their fore legs advanced or stretched for- 
ward underneath them. It is by no means uncommon to find 
horses (that are not lame) standing, from habit, with one fore leg 
advanced in this manner, while the other is receded rather ; and 
when this is done it is always the hind leg of the opposite side 
that is flexed ; the animal from time to time reversing this position 
of his limbs, unless it be that his foot is pointed from pain or un- 
easiness, and then the same leg is kept in advance. So, under 
ordinary circumstances, first one hind limb is thrown into flexion, 
then the other, and in this manner are both recruited by rest : the 
fore limbs obtaining their repose, standing, by being carried back- 
ward out of the perpendicular, and by the dependency of the head 
and neck, which brings the scapulae more upright, and throws all 
the weight possible upon the posterior parts of the leg where the 
elastic supporters are placed. When we were examining the fet- 
lock joint, we found that the sesamoid bones supported a proportion 
of the superincumbent weight, and that this proportion was greater 
or less, depending on the construction of this joint and of the 
pasterns : we now find that it will be greater when the animal is 
standing over at rest than when his limbs are placed perpendicu- 
larly under him; and this is the reason of his placing himself in this 
posture. In this position the suspensory ligaments will be called 
into greater action, and consequently there will be a less demand 
