FETLOCK
.—The part so called is the next joint below the knee, and is formed by the union of the shank-bone, at its bottom, with the upper part of the small bone passing from this junction to the coronary bone at its top. The TENDONS (commonly called the back sinews) have their lower seat of insertion at this joint, which is constantly liable to, and frequently susceptible of, the most serious LAMENESS. As injuries of this joint are sometimes incurable, particularly when occasioned by a twist or ligamentary distortion, one precaution may be prudently retained in memory; that more horses are lamed by short, sudden, and unnatural turns in the narrow stalls of an ill-constructed STABLE, (particularly in the Metropolis,) than by any straitforward means whatever. Tendinous lameness has a much greater chance of early relief, and permanent cure, than an injury sustained at the junction of the bones; for the relaxed tendons being restored to their original elasticity by CORROBORATIVE STIMULANTS, BLISTERING, or FIRING, frequently continue sound during the existence of the horse: on the contrary, a LIGAMENTARY LAMENESS, however it may be relieved, or apparently restored, is always more subject to a relapse or repetition.