64 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
receive so much of the weight as to put the ligaments violently on 
the stretch, and occasion lameness. This effect also may ensue in 
consequence of the heels of the hoof being improperly cut down, or 
the toe allowed to grow too long, or the heels being first raised by a 
high-heeled shoe, and that suddenly changed for a shoe with thin 
heels. All these causes, however, whether separate or combined, 
do not operate with so much violence in the hind as in the fore legs. 
The additional weight of the head and neck to be sustained by the 
fore legs, renders all their springs more liable to injury and decay 
than the corresponding parts behind.” 
Although the fore limbs actually support more weight than the 
hind, and receive shocks of concussion unknown to the latter, and 
on these accounts become the ordinary seats of lameness, and are 
often seen worn out while the hind legs continue serviceable, yet, 
we must not pass by unnoticed that which, in this instance, would 
seem to have escaped the observation of the Professor, viz. the 
great deal the hind legs have to do as the agents of progression, 
and the consequent frequency of failure in the hind fetlock-joints. 
We know that many of our first hunters and racers become inca- 
pacitated from what is called “ breaking down behind and we 
have no reason to feel surprise at this, when we consider the work 
these joints have to perform in progression : next to the hock, in- 
deed, there is no part of the hind limb so forced and strained as the 
fetlock. One of the best race-horses this country ever produced — 
the Colonel — failed from this cause ; and no effort on the part of 
Mr. Goodwin could set him up again upon the turf. Harness 
horses, employed in laborious draught, are very apt to fail in their 
hind fetlocks, these being the joints upon which so much stress is 
made in strenuous efforts in drawing up hill or along heavy roads. 
The greater the exertion the fetlock-joint is put to, the greater the 
flexion of it, and consequent stress or strain upon the sesamoids 
and their tendinous and ligamentary supports, producing either 
overstretch of them, or laceration of some of their component fibres 
at the moment, and thus occasioning immediate lameness; or else, 
by a repetition of effort, in time impairing or destroying their elas- 
tic properties, and thus inducing that relaxation and puffiness of 
the joint which we constantly observe in horses who have been, in 
the manner described, for years subjected to hard work. 
Two circumstances, then, influence the quantum of stress or 
weight imposed upon the sesamoids, — the degree of flexion of the 
fetlock-joint, and the position, straight or oblique, of the pastern ; 
and both these circumstances are, in a measure, under our control. 
We cannot, it is true, lengthen or shorten the pastern ; but it is in 
our power, by means of shoeing, to alter the position of it : “ The 
heels of the hoof being improperly cut down, or the toe allowed to 
