Christmas gift-bringer the leader of the Wild Hunt at the time of Yule. Santa Claus's reindeer has also been compared to Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Odin in Norse mythology. Jacob Grimm ("Deutsche Mythologie") traces the threatening or scary companions of Saint Nicholas (such as the Krampus of the Austro-Bavarian dialect region) to Christianized versions of house-spirits (kobolds, elves). After Christianization, the benign mid-winter gift-bringer was associated with the 4th-century Christian Saint Nicholas of Myra. This association took place mainly in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, including German-speaking Europe, the Low Countries, the Czech lands, Hungary and Slovenia. The basis
Post-legged Post-legged Post-legged describes a condition in which the joints in an animal are not set correctly. When an animal is post-legged, the leg joints are far too straight, with almost no bend in the legs. Four-legged animals must have some bend in the hocks, otherwise the hooves would wear unevenly, and this may result in lameness, or at least a rougher gait. The animal will not stand squarely on the ground, and this also increases the possibility of injury to the animal. When an animal is post-legged, the animal will have a much higher risk of lameness, perhaps even permanent.