PASTERN.—The pastern of a horse is the distance between the fetlock and the coronet, which terminates at the junction of hair and hoof. The pastern should be short, strong, and uniform; when long, it is proportionally weak; and the nearer the fetlock is to the ground, the more liable such horse is to be let down in the back sinews, and become lame.
PATTEN-SHOE—was a shoe formerly used with lame horses; but from the palpable absurdity of its adoption, seems now to be nearly banished from modern practice. This shoe was constructed with a ring, circular, or nearly oval, at the bottom, which being fixed upon the SOUND foot, its intentional use was to _compel_ the horse in _all_ injuries to stand upon the lame leg, that a contraction of the muscular parts might be prevented. Happily such ridiculous and ill-founded notions are gliding into oblivion.
PATTERN-SHOE—is a shoe formed upon rational principles, and of a scientific construction, for transmission to any part of the world, as a PATTERN by which the ART of SHOEING may be universally improved, and reduced to one general standard of purity and perfection.
PEDIGREE.—The pedigree (or genealogical descent) of a horse is in the present day so fabricated by _hearsay_, or framed by _fiction_, that nothing less than a well-authenticated certificate, under the hand of the BREEDER, can with propriety be received as an indisputable proof of the PURITY of his BLOOD: and this is the more evidently necessary to a SPORTSMAN, lest he should be induced (relying upon his _deceptive_ pedigree) to enter into a racing engagement, and that too, perhaps, for a sum of much magnitude; the whole of which, with the additional training expences, might be lost for want of that very blood he has been villainously taught to believe he has got in possession. To such an enthusiastic pitch has the desire of pedigree attained, under the fashionable sporting phrenzy of the time, that a horse is absolutely considered of neither value or utility, unless his pedigree is properly attested, and he is known to "carry the catalogue of his endowments by his side." The DEALERS (as well as others) are so well aware of this partiality for _blood_ and _pedigree_, that every common roadster has the _report_ of his _get_ ready prepared, and no purchaser need be without it. Upon the subject of authenticated pedigrees, for near a century past, MR. WEATHERBY'S STUD BOOK is, beyond a doubt, the first publication extant.