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As the {eet of hdrses, therefore, assume vari- 

 ous forms, the shoes must be fitted to the feet, 

 and not the feet pared away to accommodate 

 the shoes. The handsomest foot is that which 

 has a roundish rather than a long form, with 

 an open heel, and plenty of hoof, sufficiently 

 deep from the coronet in front to the point of 

 the toe, and the quarters diminishing gradually 

 in depth until they arrive at the heel, where 

 they terminate, and where the crust is lowest; 

 and the reason of its being lowest at the heel 

 is, that after having bent his knee well, the 

 horse may be able to straighten it again, which 

 he could not do so well if the heel were too 

 high; and shoes turned up too much for ca- 

 valry and saddle horses produce this effect. In 

 preparing the foot for the shoe, nothing should 

 b^ taken away from the sole but what is quite 

 superfluous — the soft, mealy substance that 

 accumulates between the hoof and shoe of a 

 horse that has been already shod, and particu- 

 larly in white-footed horses (which is not met 

 with in the hoofs of a horse that has run bare- 

 foot at grass for some time), and filing off the 

 inequalities and breaks that occur round the 

 circumference of the hoof outside. After this 



