SEATS. 89 



quently a consequence of the former. Now we havev 

 shown (see fig. 2, C) that the consequence of throwing \ 

 the weight forward is to make the horse overstep with / 

 his hind foot the track of the corresponding fore foot ; I 

 and this being very much our habit, our horses do\ 

 very frequently overstep, and by so doing the risk i^ 

 run of tearing off the fore shoes. We have got into the 

 habit of using very short shoes, the web of which does 

 not overlap sufficiently, at the heel, the angle formed by 

 the frog with the wall of the hoof, but falling short, 

 throws the whole pressure inside this angle. This is 

 what produces corns. For racing, certain! y , and p erhaps 

 for hunting, the short shoe may be inevitable, but 

 there is no reason whatever why the roadster should 

 be shod in this fashion, nor even a cavalry horse, ex- 

 cept that people will persist in either sitting directly on 

 the horse's withers, or when they sit on the loins, 

 transfeiTing their weight to the shoulder, through the 

 medium of stirrups hung far forward, every time they 

 rise in the saddle when trotting. Corns and broken 

 knees are totally unknown in the Austrian cavalry, 

 where the shoe is given a solid bearing on the angle of 

 the wall of the hoof at the heel. 



