POINT

.—A horse standing in his stall, or elsewhere, with one fore-leg at some distance before the other, is always concluded, by the most experienced, to have sustained some irreparable injury either in the SHOULDER , or the ligamentary junction of the COFFIN and CORONARY bones, concealed in the box (or cavity) of the hoof. This is in a considerable degree to be relied on; but there are many instances in which a horse accustoms himself to awkward positions, and they become habitual: some stand with either the near or the off fore-leg eternally before the other, and are as perfectly sound as any horses in the kingdom. To say, therefore, from a horse's manner of standing, that he is lame, would be as absurd as to say any man could not be either a good dancer, or fencer, because he stood, when disengaged from both, in a carele , lounging, ungraceful attitude.