384 CONTRACTION. 



is a hollow space within the foot, which sometimes extends upward and around, 

 so as to admit a large probe. Neither the bone nor the laminae, however, are 

 exposed, but are still protected by the internal portion of the crust. The only 

 thing to be done is to anoint the foot occasionally, particularly the affected part, 

 with tar and grease. A blister may also be applied to excite the development 

 of a new growth of horn, that which is become dry and brittle being occasionally 

 cut away *." 



CONTRACTION. 



The cut page 372, will give a fair idea of the young healthy foot, approach- 

 ing nearly to a circle, and of which the quarters form the widest part, and the 

 inner quarter (this is the near foot) rather wider than the outer. This shape 

 is not long preserved hi many horses, but the foot increases in length, and nar- 

 rows in the quarters, and particularly at the heel, and the frog is diminished in 

 width, and the sole becomes more concave, and the heels higher, and lameness, 

 or at least a shortened and feeling action, ensues. 



It must be premised that there is a great deal more horror of contracted heels 

 than there is occasion for. Many persons reject a horse at once if the quarters 

 are wiring in ; but the fact is, that although this is an unnatural form of the 

 hoof, it is slow of growth, and nature kindly makes that provision for the slowly 

 altered form of the hoof which she does in similar cases she accommodates the 

 parts to the change of form. As the hoof draws in, the parts beneath, and par- 

 ticularly the coffin-bone, and especially the heels of that bone, diminish ; or, 

 after all, it is more a change of form than of capacity. As the foot lengthens 

 in proportion as it narrows, so does the coffin-bone, and it is as perfectly adjusted 

 as before to the box in which it is placed. Its laminae are in as intimate and 

 perfect union with those of the crust as before the hoof had begun to change. 

 On this account it is that many horses, with very contracted feet, are perfectly 

 sound, and no horse should be rejected merely because he has contraction. He 

 should undoubtedly be examined more carefully, and with considerable suspi- 

 cion ; but if he has good action, and is otherwise unexceptionable, there is no 

 reason that the purchase should not be made. A horse with contracted feet, if 

 he goes sound, is better than another with open but weak heels. 



The opinion is perfectly erroneous that contraction is the necessary conse- 

 quence of shoeing. There can be no doubt that an inflexible iron ring being 

 nailed to the foot prevents, to a very considerable degree, the descent of the sole 

 and the expansion of the heels below ; and it is likewise probable, that when the 

 expansion of the heels is prevented they often begin to contract. But here 

 again nature, cut off from one resource, finds others. If one of the jugular 

 veins is lost, the blood pursues its course by other channels, and the horse does not 

 appear to suffer in the slightest degree. Thus also if the expansion of the heels 

 below is diminished, that of the cartilages above is made more use of. If the 

 coffin-bone has not so much descent downward, it probably acquires one back- 

 ward, and the functions of the foot are usefully if not perfectly performed. The 

 plain proof of this is, that although there are many horses that are injured or 

 ruined by bad shoeing, there are others, and they are a numerous class, who 

 suffer not at all from good shoeing, and scarcely even from bad. Except it be 

 from accident, how seldom is the farmer's horse lame ; and it might even be 

 farther asked, how seldom is his foot much contracted ? Some gentlemen who 

 are careful of their horses have driven them twenty years, and principally over 

 the rough pavement of towns, without a day's lameness. Shoeing may be a 

 necessary evil, but it is not the evil which some speculative persons have 

 supposed it to be ; and the undoubted fact is, that when the horse is put to real 



Spooner on the Foot of the Horse. 



