306 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
ble, they being excellently adapted for the work by the pulley-like 
articulation just mentioned. Where is the utility, then, of the other 
five bones'! Whatever uses we may be able to attach to the remain- 
ing four, the purposes served by one of the five, the os calcis, be- 
come too obvious to admit of any question. The point of the hock , 
that lever of more power than any one in the machine besides, 
through the aid of which the muscles most of all others concerned 
in progression are enabled to perform their great work, consists of 
the os calcis ; this of itself being the part, as I observed before, 
which commonly goes by the name of the hock. When horse- 
persons talk about horses having “ good” or “ bad” hocks, they 
allude, for the most part, to the position and length of this lever. 
I heard a man, a good judge, say on a race-course on one occasion, 
“ Shew me the horses’ hocks, and I will point out the winner.” In 
a word, if there be one “ point” about horses of more importance 
than another — one that cannot be tolerated badly formed or im- 
perfectly developed — that point is the hock. What, then, is it 
that constitutes “ a good hock ? ” Firstly, and principally, it ought 
to be large in proportion to other parts : a disproportionably small 
hock can never prove equivalent in power to a large one of the 
same quality. On a lateral view, it should appear broad; and, 
on a view from behind, bulky and bony. And, then, the point or 
lever should stand boldly and prominently out from behind it, to 
a degree to give the tendinous cords affixed to it that set-off from 
the limb which enables one to trace them through the skin per- 
fectly distinct — isolated as it were — from the substance of the 
thigh. “ Bad hocks,” such as want these “ fair proportions,” are 
deficient in breadth and boldness of feature, and have, in conse- 
quence of such deficiencies, a mean, gummy, unattractive aspect. 
When the hock, from want of boldness and projection in its point, 
is rounded behind, forming, in conjunction with the thigh and leg 
in their posterior outline, a sort of semicircle, the horse is said to be 
sickle-hocked. And when, from the breadth of the pelvis, or the in- 
ward direction given to the tibial bones, the hocks are positioned too 
near to each other, the hind cannons running forward and the hind 
toes turning outward, the horse is denominated cow-hocked; cows 
being remarkable for such conformation. The cannon, from the 
hock, should descend in a vertical line towards the ground ; a 
position in which it has more extent of motion, both forward and 
backward, and one which gives to the hock its greatest power and 
efficiency in action. The longer the thigh and the more the hock 
“ sets out” behind from the body, the greater the sphere of the 
action of the hind limb, though the power of the hock is weak- 
ened by the longitude of the tendons inserted into it. That is the 
strongest hock which, being of itself well-formed, receives the 
