THE NEW POCKET FARRIER. 27 



their joints so close together, that they cannot travel 

 without cutting or interfering, or, what is still worse, 

 without striking one leg so hard against the other as to 

 produce lameness. 



CIRCLED FEET. 



Circled feet are very easy to be known : they are, 

 when you see little excrescences round the hoof, which 

 enclose the foot, and appear like so many small circles. 

 Dealers who have such horses, never fail to rasp round 

 their hoofs, in order to make them smooth ; and to con- 

 ceal the rasping, when they are to show them for sale, 

 they black the hoofs all over ; for without that, one may 

 easily perceive what has been done, and seeing the mark 

 of the rasp, is a proof that the horse is subject to this 

 accident. As to the causes, it proceeds from the remains 

 of an old distemper, or from having been foundered ; 

 and the disease being cured without care being taken of 

 the feet, whereupon the circulation of the blood not 

 being regularly made, especially round the crown, be- 

 tween the hair and the horn, the part loses its nourish- 

 ment, and contracts or enlarges itself in proportion as 

 the horse is worked. If these circles were only on the 

 surface, the jockies' method of rasping them down 

 would then be good for nothing ; but they form them- 

 selves also within the feet, as well as without, and 

 consequently press on the sensible part, and make a 

 horse limp with ever so little labour. One may justly 

 compare a horse in this situation, to a man that has 

 corns on his feet, and yet is obliged to walk a long way 

 in shoes that are too tight and stubborn : a horse there- 

 fore is worth a great deal less on this account. 



