LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
243 
tensors , extend or straighten these parts: they are, consequently, 
antagonists in action. But the flexors are more numerous and 
powerful than the extensors. And owing to this superiority of 
power, there is a continual (natural) endeavour on the part of the 
flexor muscles to bend the leg, which they are only prevented from 
carrying into effect by the counter- action of the extensors, aided 
by the natural standing posture of the foot upon the ground ; 
whenever, however, this equilibrium of action comes to be de- 
stroyed either through insufficient power in the extensors or excess 
of it in the flexors, or through the want of that co-operation which 
the ground affords so long as the foot continues placed upon it, the 
flexors draw the heel up and the toe down to that extent that the 
horse, on occasions, either treads upon the point of the toe exclu- 
sively, or absolutely stands and walks upon the fronts of his fet- 
lock joints. In such a condition as this it is manifest the animal 
is rendered useless. Nor do I know of any thing that can save 
him from slaughter except the operation now under our notice. I 
shall give a case in illustration, and it is the earliest case of the 
kind I find recorded in The Veterinarian. 
Mr. Wells, of Wymondham, in June 1828, was consulted 
about a horse that had been lame and useless for three years from 
a “sprain” of the tendon of the off hind leg. He had been blis- 
tered and fired, and blistered again, without affording relief. The 
foot was now drawn up by the permanent contraction of the flexor 
muscles to that extent that the front of the fetlock came down upon 
the ground at every step, impeding action so greatly that “ the 
horse had been nine hours in coming a distance of seven miles.” 
The flexor tendon was divided midway between the hock and fet- 
lock, and at the same time neurotomy was performed, the last being 
deemed requisite to restore the action of the navicular joint. In 
two months afterwards, the horse, free from pain and lameness, 
was put to plough, where he was at work at the time this account 
was written, which was nine months afterwards*. 
But “ contracted sinews” giving rise to so much deformity that 
the horse is thereby rendered unfit for use, may arise from natural 
causes, independent of any work or medical treatment the animal 
may have been subjected to. In October 1837 was purchased a 
colt (gelding) for the First Life Guards, of a long-legged and 
growing character, who, originally ill-formed in his fetlocks, after 
purchase grew for several months so rapidly that his fore legs, 
becoming weaker and weaker, at length failing to sustain the weight 
of his body, gave way under it, becoming what is called" bowed” 
to that degree that the knuckling over was day by day bringing the 
* This case will be found at length in the second volume of The Veteri- 
narian, page 142 . 
