the buckle. (See, also, Fig. 16.) The objections to the employment of this method of tying up the leg are: (a) That it is apt to irritate the animal by the compression needed to keep the strap in its place; (b) That, when the leg is thus fixed, the horse, in the event of his “coming down,”
Fig. 14.—Tying up fore-leg with stirrup-leather.
is liable to hurt his knee, “capped knee” being the usual result of the injury; on account of the broad extensor tendon being, necessarily, tightly stretched over the part. I have had this accident occur, on different occasions, when making a horse lie down, even when he had knee-caps on, and when the ground was quite soft; (c) The heel of the shoe, if one be on, is apt to bruise and cut the elbow; (d) The compression exercised by the strap on the fore-arm numbs the leg, and tends to make the animal fall awkwardly, if he is made to lie down; (e) Unless the strap is kept very tight, it is apt to slip down the fore-arm, and thus exercise an injurious strain on the fetlock joint.
2. By far the best way for tying up a fore-leg is the one described by Mr. Saunders in ‘Our Horses,’ by which the leg is simply suspended, at any length required, from the surcingle. Mr. Saunders advises the use of a small loop to connect the surcingle and strap together (see [Fig. 15]), with the object, I presume, of keeping the limb in a plane parallel to the general direction of the horse’s body. This is certainly an advantage when making a horse lie down, although I have found, for ordinary purposes of control,
Fig. 15.—The best method of fastening up a fore-leg.