Requisites of Perfect Balance 89 



gained. This is poor reasoning, for we deal with animal locomotion 

 where energy is the fuel. The greater the leverage at toe the greater 

 the energy expended, and the greater the energy expended the less 

 likely can an increase of speed or of stride be expected. Granted even 

 that a stride is thereby made a half inch longer, it does not follow that 

 with an enforced greater energy the horse will maintain a greater 

 speed for the given distance ; nor is it true that such increased leverage 

 at toe will cause greater rapidity of action. 



In fact, we know by practice and experience that squared toes in- 

 crease action and rapidity of motion at the expense of extension, such 

 as is shown by the same foot with a round toe and under the same 

 conditions. There is an exact proportion between speed, length of 

 toe and energy which might well be expressed by saying that the longer 

 the toe the greater the amount of energy necessary to acquire the same 

 speed, and the easier the leverage at the toe the less will be the energy 

 required to maintain that speed. Rapidity of action or motion, it may 

 be argued, requires as much and more of that energy 'than the long 

 sweeping stride. It is the initial effort, however, which overcomes the 

 resistance of the leverage of toe, or of the length of the lever repre- 

 sented by the ground surface of foot from heel to toe, that constitutes 

 the greatest strain and hence the greatest initial energy. And again, 

 the greatest amount of energy during action is spent in the effort of 

 propulsion, and this effort is entirely placed at the toe of the foot. 



Therefore it has always seemed almost criminal to me for any 

 man, be he trainer or owner, to neglect the ever-growing hoof, whether 

 same be on a horse he works or on one he has turned out to pasture. 

 In any well regulated business records are kept of incidents, prices or 

 figures of previous years and of various matters for comparison with 

 similar data of every month as it passes. Why should therefore the 

 business of shoeing, that which preserves balance, be left to an im- 

 perfect memory and to guess work ? 



If the foot has a certain frontal length, say 3 inches, from tip to 

 coronet, and the angle which sole and heels make with this frontal sur- 

 face at toe is 49 and the horse is well balanced, why is this not made 

 part of a record of shoeing besides the weight and shape of shoes? 



