42 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



lar education ; we merely wish to show how little 

 it will affect the mechanics of an art ; so long as 

 uneducated artizans can be found, so long will the 

 educated ones allot to them the handiwork, re- 

 serving to themselves the right to conceive and 

 direct. 



The remedy appears to us to lie with the horse 

 owner : the veterinary surgeon cannot be expected 

 to devote his time to the inspection of the animals 

 shod at his establishment ; the men who make the 

 shoes and nail them on are not hkely to understand 

 the science of the subject ; therefore the owner has, 

 in self-defence, to make himself familiar with the 

 mechanism of the foot, its movements under various 

 circumstances, and decide what system is best 

 adapted for his purpose, taking care, by examination 

 of the horses after shoeing, to see that his wishes 

 are comjilied with. The amount of knowledge re- 

 quired is not extensive, and most men are sufficiently 

 interested in the matter to take a little trouble 

 about it. 



During the course of our remarks we shall mainly 

 aim at supplying a few directions which will enable 

 the inquirer to avoid some very common mistakes, 

 and to understand sufficient of the action of the 

 foot to prevent the commission of any great ab- 

 surdity in the selection of a system of shoeing. 

 The situation and shape of the foot, we take for 

 granted, are perfectly understood by everyone know- 

 ing anything about horses. The common terms 

 applied to the dilferent parts are also usually quite 

 familiar ; but, in case of any difficulty hence, we 

 may just mention them. .The whole of the hoof, 

 from the termination of the hair down to the ground, 

 is called the " wall." This " wall" or shell of horny 

 matter bends inwards at the back of the foot, form- 

 ing the '■' heel ;" the front of the w^all is called 

 the " toe," and the sides the " quarters ;" the con- 

 cave bottom of the foot is the " sole," and the 

 ground surface of the wall which surrounds it is 

 the " crust ;" at the back of the sole, between the 

 two heels, filling up a triangular space, is a soft 

 bulbous substance of thinner horn, called, from 

 some unexplained reason, the " frog." The founda- 

 tion of the foot is, as in all other cases, bone, over 

 which is reflected a quantity of fibrous matter, 

 covered by a membrane, from the vessels of which 

 the horny covering is secreted. 



The support of the horse's weight during rest and 

 motion Ijy these organs presupposes considerable 

 elasticity or immense power of resistance. We can 

 hardly imagine the part to exist in a perfectly pas- 

 sive condition, particularly when we discover that 

 all its structures are arrayed to admit of motion. 

 For a long time it was held, and doubtless is now 

 supposed by many, that the foot expands at the 

 time when the horse throws his weight upon it, the 

 expansion being at the ground surface. The idea 

 was, that, during this support of the weight of the 

 body, the concave sole had a tendency to assume 

 the form of a plane ; in doing this its circumference 

 would be increased, and consequently push out the 

 ring of the wall to a corresponding extent. All this 

 seemed satisfactory; there was no direct proof to 

 the contrary, and the theory of " ground surface 

 expansion," strengthened by Coleman's defence, 

 was allowed to remain unmolested, until some one 



started the query, " How can the horny concave 

 sole alter its shape in approaching the figure of a 

 plane, without becoming detached from the sensi- 

 tive sole to which it is perfectly adapted in every 

 part — indeed, from which it is secreted ?" This 

 point not being open to a satisfactory solution, the 

 opponents to " ground surface expansion " look 

 fresh heart, and soon found fresh reasons against 

 the theory. At present, experiments and investi- 

 gations upon the dead and living organ seem to 

 have ])erfectly established the following facts : — 

 The hoof is thinnest and most easily moved at the 

 heels, particularly the upper part of them. Pres- 

 sure upon the bones of the foot removed from the 

 limb causes the internal structures to descend 

 slightly upon the horny sole, so far as the yielding 

 of the intervening membrane will permit ; but it in 

 no wise causes any alteration of the form of the 

 horny sole, although it may have been previously 

 thinned out for the purpose of making it more elas- 

 tic. These experiments, aided by reasonings on 

 mechanical jmnciples, lead to conclude that, while 

 the animal's weight is thrown on the foot, the inter- 

 nal parts descend on to the horny sole, pressing 

 firmly upon it. At the time of this descent, the 

 fibrous pad at the back of the foot expands, and 

 presses out the upper parts of the heel slightly; the 

 ground surface does not aj)preciably alter its form. 



AVhether we accept the above explanation of the 

 movements of the foot, or adhere to the old notions 

 of expansion, one thing is quite clear, namely, that 

 in the employment of shoes to the bottom of the 

 hoofs, we should give preference to that plan which 

 allows the largest amount of freedom. The neces- 

 sity of protecting the sole of the organ by some 

 hard material is quite evident ; the )!oints to be 

 determined are the kind of material, and its methods 

 of adaption. With a laudable wish to mollify the 

 evil which must follow the fettering of the foot by 

 an iron ring, experiments have been made with 

 India rubber, felt, and gutta percha ; but without 

 even a temporary success. Iron being thus estab- 

 lished as a necessity, it was suggested that a less 

 injurious fastening than the nail might be found ; 

 accordingly, various clips, fixing the shoe by pres- 

 sure to the sides of the hoof, were tried and failed ; 

 more lately, threads applied through carefully 

 drilled holes, and, on their inefficiency being ascer- 

 tained, wires were suljstituted ; but in no instance 

 did the experiments justify an attempt to introduce 

 either system into practice. 



After all our inquiry, therefore, it may really be 

 said with truth that the present system of shoeing 

 is precisely the system upon which the first shoe 

 was applied — a piece of iron fastened to the sole of 

 the foot by other pieces of iron driven through the 

 horn. Taking the system, therefore, as we find it, 

 it must be our object to see how this iron may be 

 nailed to the hoof in a manner to allow the greatest 

 freedom to all parts, consistently with the firm 

 attachment of the shoe to its situation. 



In shoeing, as in everything else, a good begin- 

 ning is a great way towai-ds a proper continuance ; 

 we therefore commence our suggestions by su|)- 

 ])osing we have a colt ready for work, and requiring 

 to be shod as a preliminary proceeding ; we under- 

 stand, of course, that the animal has for some time 



