1 Juz, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 477 
with in high-bred horses, and causes no other inconvenience than that of making 
the animal rather stiff in its movements. The ligaments of a bent hock, like 
those of a long-jointed horse, are liable to sprain. 
We have thus enumerated the good and bad points of perpendicularity 
Which can be noted in a horse that is examined in profile. We will now pass 
0n to those which may be discovered by standing straight opposite a horse, either 
before or behind it. ‘If the front view of the horse be taken, and the fore limbs 
looked at as a whole, the fact of their proper perpendicularity is evident when a 
vertical line drawn from the upper part of each limb divides them into two 
equal parts (Fig. 56). When the limbs fall within these two vertical and 
parallel lines, the horse is said to be too close in front (Hig. 57). When, on 
the contrary, the two limbs fall outside these two lines, the horse is said to be 
Open at the front. Moreover, when the feet are too wide apart the horse is 
said to walk wide (Fig. 58). If the two feet, instead of being parallel to each 
| other, have their toes turned outward, the horse is said to be Crooked-legged. 
| (Fig. 59). Tf, on the contrary, the toes converge inwardly, the horse is said to 
_ be splay-footed (Fig. 60). Very often in a crooked-legged horse the knees are 
_ closer to each other than are the feet, and awkward protuberances are formed 
_ on the inside. Knees of this kind are called ox-knees (Fig. 61). A splay- 
_ footed horse has usually the contrary defect ; its knees are too wide apart ; it is 
_ then said to be splay-footed and bandy-legged (Fig. 62). The proper perpin- 
_ dicularity of the hinder limbs of a horse may be ascertained by dropping a 
_ vertical line from the upper part of each hock. If this divides the limbs into 
equal halves, the shape is as it should be (Fig. 63). A horse is said to be 
_ crooked-legged behind when the points of the toes diverge; that is to say, when 
_ they are too wide apart, and turn outwards. In a horse with this defect the 
hocks also incline inwards, and it is said to be cow-hocked (Hig. 64). A horse 
' 1s splay-footed behind when the ends of the toes converge towards the same 
_ point Its appearance is quite different to that of a crooked-legged horse, for 
the hocks are too wide apart, and the horse is, consequently, not only splay- 
footed, but too open behind (Fig. 65). Crooked-legged and splay-footed 
horses are, whether the defects occur at the front or at the back, in danger of 
cutting themselves, or of chafing one leg against another, these expressions 
being synonymous terms, which may be adopted by those who want to say that 
a horse “ brushes’? and wounds the fetlock of one foot with the shoe of the 
Opposite one. The danger of wounds of this kind constitutes the principal 
Inconvenience of these defects, though they are exceedingly ugly. We will 
here close our list of defects and blemishes of perpendicularity. A knowledge 
of them can only be obtained by a frequent practice of the directions here 
given, and their importance will be specially appreciated when horses have to be 
examined for purchase. 
GOVERNMENT STUDS. 
Tire following is from a recent issue of the English Zive Stock Journal :—It 
1s interesting to note the enormous grants made by foreign Governments to 
their horse-breeding establishments. France maintains her breeding studs 
at an annual cost of about £270,000. Austria devotes to the maintenance of 
her studs, the purchase of promising young stock, and allied expenses, about 
£140,000. The Hungarian Government votes £116,500 a year for horse- 
breeding, but spends in addition large sums in buying horses. Germany works 
on more economical lines; she votes an annual purchase fund of £45,000, and 
runs her breeding establishments on business lines, whereby they cost her only 
about £3,400 a year. Yet Austria, Hungary, Germany, and France are still 
able to find better breeding stock in England than they can at home. 
tl 
