This he does by throwing his weight, so far as he is able, on to the heels of the feet affected, and putting the feet slowly forward in a shuffling and feeling manner.  The feet themselves give to the hand a sensation of abnormal heat, percussion upon them with the hammer is followed by painful attempts at withdrawal, while any effort we may make to remove one foot from the ground is useless, so great an aversion does the animal show to placing a greater weight upon the opposite foot.

According as the front-feet alone, the hind-feet alone, or all four feet are affected, the symptoms will vary.

With all four feet diseased, the animal stands with the two front-feet extended in front of him, while the hind-limbs are at the same time propped as far beneath him as is possible.  The horse is, in fact, standing upon the extreme hindermost portions of the feet.

Why the animal should thus distribute his weight is easily explained.  Standing in the normal position, the body-weight is borne by the sensitive laminae, the sole, of course, sharing in the burden, but the laminae taking by far the greater part of the pressure thus exerted.  With the vessels of the laminae gorged with blood, and the laminal connective tissue infiltrated with a profuse inflammatory exudate, the most excruciating pain is bound to result by reason of the compression of the diseased tissues within the non-yielding structures.  In some little measure the suffering animal may afford himself relief by partly removing pressure from the fore-parts of the hoof.  When placing the body-weight behind, the pressure, instead of falling upon the highly sensitive laminae, is directed to the follicular and fatty tissues of the plantar cushion:  from there, with only a small portion of the sensitive sole intervening, to the horny frog, and from thence to the ground.

The same distribution of weight also places the foot in a position of greatest expansion, thus, by giving greater room to the diseased parts, again affording relief of pressure on the inflamed lamina, while it at the same time relieves of weight the foremost portions of the sensitive sole.

With the fore-feet alone attacked, the animal affects exactly the same position of standing as that just described.  The fore-feet are again extended, and the hind propped far beneath him.  The fore extended, in order to obtain the relief occasioned by standing on the heels; the hind in this case carried forward in order to take a greater share of the body-weight, and thus relieve the congested members in front.

With the hind only attacked, then the fore and the hind feet are more closely approximated than in the normal position.  The reason, of course, is that the hind-feet are carried forward in order to be placed upon the heels, while the fore are taken backwards to relieve the hind of the body-weight.