582 FLAT OR CONVEXED SOLES. 



A wet and filthy farm-yard furnishes all those noxious 

 agencies in the greatest abundance which give rise to 

 thrushes, and a general weak state of foot. Eeverse these 

 conditions, and keep horses on a firm, well-drained soil, 

 and their hoofs will become almost uniformly excellent 

 physically, as well as firm, elastic, and strong in texture, 

 whilst the arched form of the pedal bone, and the perfection 

 of every fibre in the foot, will be such as to adapt the animal 

 for any work. 



Another and common cause of thrush, as it prevails 

 amongst working horses, is justly attributed to impairment 

 of the functions of the foot, through the shoe. When, for 

 instance, the feet, through excess of shortening the toe, 

 and leaving the heels high, are rendered unduly up- 

 right, there is a considerable derangement to functions, 

 one of the common effects being the appearance of 

 thrush. 



Treatment. Remove the causes, and also loose parts of 

 horn from the frog, and put the whole hoof into its normal 

 state, and if the horse is required for work, let him be 

 shod according to rule. Let his stable be dry and clean, 

 with a stone floor ; the feet should be washed morning 

 and evening in clean water, and the heels wiped dry at 

 once ; and every fourth or fifth day, when the hoofs are dry, 

 a pledget of tow, charged with Barbadoes tar, may be intro- 

 duced into the clefts of the frogs, and the same pressed into 

 the commissures. If the horse is not required for work, 

 as in the case of young stock, brood mares, &c., let the 

 shoeing be omitted, and all the other things prescribed at- 

 tended to. 



Thrush being, as we have shown, an effect of bad man- 

 agement, in its turn becomes a cause of further derange- 

 ment in the foot, and therefore no one should consider his 



