Identifier: horseitstreatmen01axej (find matches)
Title: The Horse : its treatment in health and disease, with a complete guide to breeding, training and management
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Axe, J. Wortley
Subjects: Horses
Publisher: London : Gresham
Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Tufts University

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tained and apportioned from topto bottom. Quality is an important adjunct to strengthand proportion, and will be marked l)y an absence of any appearance ofroundness, a thin, supple skin from beneath which the bones stand out insharp relief, imparting to the joint both leanness and neatness of outline. Full, round, fleshy hocks in which all the anatomical parts areobscured, whatever may be their size and proportion, are objectionable,as they denote a common descent, a lymphatic temperament, and a lackof energy and endurance. Given a large, well-directed hock, the power of the muscles whichact upon it and the segments of the limb below it will generally befound proportionate in size and strength. The direction no less than the form of the hock is materiallyinfluenced by the greater or less inclination of the tibia or second thighabove and the canon below. When these ))ones approximate to a vertical position the hock andthe limb as a whole are rendered straight, and the angularity of the
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Fig. 67 A, Astragalus. B, Calcaneus.C, Tibia. D, Great Metatarsalor canon-bone. E, Splint-hone.1-4, Small tarsal bones. 88 CONFORMATION AND ITS DEFECTS joint is least pronounced. It is this variety of conformation combinedwith length of limb that gives the race-horse his immense stride, andin turn enables him to extend the hind extremities to their farthestlimits, and to realize all the jjower of his propelling muscles. It matters not how strong the quarters may be, if the tibia or secondthigh slopes too much backward, or the canon too much forward, thehock is no longer straight, and the power of extending the limb ismore or less curtailed, and the speed proportionately diminished. The importance of a straight hock and of a straight hind-limb generally,so manifest in the race-horse, is not an essential point in the conformation of the draught-horse. The great powerwhich the latter putsforth in the act ofdraught is favoured bya greater obliquity ofthe bony segments, forin this position

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