ESSAY ON SHOEING IIOESES. 139 



mon defect is the foot being higher on one side than the other, and 

 thus every part of the foot and limb is thrown out of its natural line 

 of bearing. Then we have many dii-^turbances in the line of obli- 

 quity which the foot in its natural state should bear to the limb ; we 

 find variations of half an inch or an inch in the depth of the heels, 

 under different modes of preparing tlie foot, and a similar extreme 

 at the point constituting what is called length or shortening of the 

 toe ; all these, which nature has ordained to be exact, are found to 

 vary by the inch, and the defects are variously complicated in the 

 same foot. To know how to prepare the foot implies an understand- 

 ing of all these deviations. We may be asked, are there no parts 

 of the foot to be removed and others to be conserved besides that 

 which comes under the general meaning of proportion in depth, 

 breadth, and length of the whole? We say, no. In adjusting the 

 foot we have to deal with the wall, and if that part is well done and 

 the foot well shod, the other parts — viz., the sole and frog — are ne- 

 cessarily taken care of; though the horn is secreted constantly on 

 those parts like that of the wall, to meet the wear, the process oi 

 detaching is different ; the sole and frog detach their outer layers as 

 they become superabundant. When, however, as is commonly the 

 case, the foot is badly prepared and badly shod, the sole may be- 

 come, as it does, imprisoned by an overlapping of the wall, and want 

 of the general natural functions of the foot ; then the process of ex- 

 foliation may be interiupted ; the proper remedy in which case is not 

 to hack and sink holes into the sole, but restore the balance in the 

 whole foot by removal of disturbing causes. The instruments at 

 present in use with us, for preparing the horse's foot, are of the 

 most ill- adapted kind; and here Ave are prepared to be met by the 

 observation that a good workman will eff"ect his object with any 

 tool; it would, perhaps, however, be more correct to say that an 

 able artist will generally devise a proper instrument to effect his ob- 

 ject. Two instruments are used for the reduction of the hoof, the 

 drawing-knife and rasp ; these are both of modern introduction for 

 that purpose, and, as applies to the old world, they are confined to 

 our country. These instruments are coeval with a doctrine of shoe- 

 ing which has prevailed for between sixty and seventy years ; pre- 

 vious to that time, an instrument similar to that in use up to the 

 present time all over the Continent, called a butteris, was adopted in 

 Great Britain. To the late Professor Coleman is mainly due the ab- 

 olition of the butteris and substitution of the drawing-knife. The 

 reason assigned was, that the old one was an ungainly, clumsy tool, 

 and certainly, to perform what the new doctrine in shoeing was re- 

 quiring, it was not the instrument. It was laid down as a rule that 

 the sole was to be cut away ; that it was to be pared thin every time 

 the horse was shod ; that there were certain parts called bars that 

 were to be preserved, which consisted in neither more nor less than 

 a carving away of the sole almost to the blood, and leaving a small 

 ridge at each angle, between which the hook of the drawing-knife 

 was freely used to scoop out what was called the seat of corn. The 

 little drawing-knife, bent so as to reach to every crevice and angle 

 of the foot, was just the destructive instrument to do such work, 

 but was in no way adapted to adjust a foot for the shoe ; indeed no 

 jne ever used it, or does so now, for that purpose. The rasp is used 



