44 THE SHOEING OF HORSES. 



I , Should the feet be Stopped^ to keep them tough and pliant ? 

 This will depend upon circumstances. Much difference will be 

 found in the feet of horses. Some retain their natural moisture 

 longer than others, and, consequently, will retain their toughness 

 and elasticity for a greater period ; while the feet of others part 

 with moisture rapidly, and, unless supplied occasionally by external 

 means, they become so powdery and brittle, that it is with difficulty 

 a shoe can be retained upon them. Horses regularly worked in 

 soft ground, as when used for agricultural purposes, do not require 

 such aid ; but where horses labour year after year upon the hard 

 granite (as in London, Manchester, and other large cities), and 

 at night stand upon dry litter, such feet require to be stopped and 

 kept moist by artificial modes. The direct application of water 

 to the feet, if long continued, will produce a pasty condition of the 

 horn ; and when the operator ceases to apply it, the evaporation 

 from the surface of the organ becomes so rapid that the foot is 

 speedily left in a highly brittle state — worse, in fact, than before. 

 Hence water alone, as an immediate applicant, is not desirable ; a 

 medium is required, which will only allow of moisture to pass into 

 the pores of the horn slowly and steadily ; or the application of a 

 substance is desirable, which will prevent the internal moisture 

 from escaping. Either of these modes may answer the purpose re- 

 quired ; the latter of the two is to be preferred, the only drawbacks 

 being, it is a little more trouble and a trifle more expensive than 

 the former. In defiance, very likely, of all lecturing and writing to 

 the contrary, the use of cow dung to the feet of horses will be 

 continued. Its application to the feet is dirty and disgusting, 

 but experience, we are told, has found it to answer the purpose 



