SAND-CRACK 135 



necessary, consequently the animal subjected to 

 carrying superfluous weight, besides being tightly 

 fastened on and provided with an extra number of 

 nails, and these too at the quarters. All of which 

 increase the tendency to thickening. It is perfectly 

 clear that without due attention to the above points, 

 in proportion to the degree of neglect, so will the 

 evil consequences increase, and the hoof must contract 

 and close up the foot round the coronet. It is a 

 notorious fact that low-heeled horses are seldom liable 

 to contraction of the hoof. 



Nothing can be more injudicious than to remove 

 the bars, as they are a grand protection against con- 

 traction, their use being principally to prevent wiring 

 in, so that cutting them away is certain to facilitate 

 and greatly increase the contraction after it has 

 begun ; but we must not have it supposed that the 

 removal of the bars of themselves would produce this 

 tendency. 



It has been said that thrushes are often the cause 

 of contraction, but they are more frequently, if not 

 altogether, the consequence rather than the cause. 



Many persons are disposed to have an undue 

 objection to contraction, and at once reject a horse 

 that exhibits the slightest degree of wiring in of 

 the quarters. There can be little doubt but this 

 is a malformation of the hoof; but one thing is 

 certain, that its growth is very slow, the altered 

 form extremely gradual, and the parts are progress- 

 ively accommodated to the change of form. 



SAND-CRACK. 



This is a downward crack, or division of the 

 hoof, as represented on Plate vi, fig. 8, a. It may 

 occur either in the fore or hind feet. In the fore 



