[4]
Having begun here, we will proceed upwards by successive steps to the rest of the body.The bones (of the pastern) above the hoofs and below the fetlocks should not be too upright, like a goat's: such legs give too hard a tread, jar the rider, and are more liable to inflammation. Nor yet should the bones be too low,1 else the fetlocks are likely to become bare and sore when the horse is ridden over clods or stones.
1 “The pasterns (of the hackney) should neither be too oblique, which bespeaks weakness: nor too straight, which wears the horse out and is unpleasant to the rider.”—Blair in Loudon's Agriculture.
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