82 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



with laminitis. The sole of the horse's foot is only 

 about the sixth of an inch thick after the foot has been 

 deprived of what the shoeing-smith calls the dead horn, 

 but what Nature placed there as a hard wearing sub- 

 stance. That Nature intended it to protect the sole is 

 beyond a doubt, it being devoid of that elasticity which 

 the true sole has, making those flakes the more valuable 

 to the horse as a protection against the stones he has to 

 travel over ; yet shoeing-smiths, owners of horses, and 

 grooms, for the sake of making the horse's foot look neat 

 and clean, will have that taken away which God in His 

 wisdom placed there for the mutual benefit of man and 

 horse. Viewed from below, the sole commonly presents 

 an arch of more or less concavity. It is subject to vast 

 variety in degree of the arc : in some feet it is of 

 surprising depth, and in others the arch is converted 

 into a flattened surface, yet both seem to perform equally 

 well. In the hind feet the sole is generally more arched 

 than in the tore, and approaches in figure more of an 

 oval than a circle. That portion elevated from the 

 ground, which forms union with the bars, is nearly 

 double the thickness of the central or circumferent parts, 

 and next to this in substance comes the heel. This is 

 situate at the back part of the foot, at which point the 

 crust of the hoof, instead of being continued round and 

 forming a complete circle, is abruptly bent in. The next 

 in importance to the lamilla of the horse's foot are the 

 cartilages. The cartilages are two broad scabrous 

 concavo-convex cartilaginous plates which surmount the 

 sides and wings of the coffin-bone. There is a groove 

 extending along the upper part of the coffin-bone on 



