Page:The Art of Horsemanship.djvu/23

Rh mark of good feet than thin. Again, one should not fail to note whether the hoofs at toe and heel come up high or lie low. High ones keep what is called the frog well off the ground, while horses with low hoofs walk with the hardest and softest part of the foot at once, like knock-kneed men. Simon says that their sound is a proof of good feet, and he is right; for a hollow hoof resounds like a cymbal as it strikes the ground.

As we have begun here, let us now proceed to the rest of the body. The bones above the hoofs and below the fetlocks should not be very straight up and down, like the goat's; for if they have no spring, they jar the rider, and such legs are apt to get inflamed. These bones should not come down very low, either, else the horse might get his fetlocks stripped of hair and torn in riding over heavy ground or over stones. The shank bones ought to be stout, for they are the supporters of the body; but they should not be thickly coated with flesh or veins: if they are, in riding over hard ground the veins would fill with blood and become varicose, the legs would swell, and the flesh recede. With this slackening