310 CONTRACTION. 



peculiarly short and quick, and the feet will be placed gently and 

 tenderly on the ground, or scarcely lifted from it in the walk or 

 the trot. It would seem as if the slightest irregularity of sur- 

 face would throw the animal down, and so it threatens to do, for 

 he is constantly tripping and stumbling. If the fore-feet are care- 

 fully observed, one or both of them will be narrowed across the 

 quarters and towards the heels. In a few cases, the whole of the, 

 ibot appears to be contracted and shrunk ; but in the majority 

 of instances, while the heels are narrower, the foot is longer. 

 The contraction appears sometimes in both heels : at other times 

 in the inner heel only ; or, if both are affected, the inner one is 

 %uired in the most, either from the coronet to the base of the 

 foot, or only or principally at the coronet — oftener near the 

 base of the foot — but in most cases the hollow being greatest 

 about mid- way between the coronet and the bottom of the foot. 

 This irregularity on contraction, and uncertainty as to the place 

 of it, prove that it is some internal disorganization, the seat of 

 which varies with the portion of the attachment between the 

 hoof and the foot that was principally strained or injured. In 

 every recent case, the contracted part will be hotter than the rest 

 of the foot, and the sole will, in the majority of cases, be unnatu- 

 rally concave. 



Of the treatment of contraction attended with lameness, little 

 that is satisfactory can be said. There have been various me- 

 chanical contrivances, such as clips of a peculiar form, and a 

 jointed shoe, which, when the foot was softened, was gradually 

 pressed asunder at the heels by a screw ; but all have proved of 

 no avail, for the disease speedily returned Avhen the ordinary shoe 

 was again applied to enable the horse to work, and work was 

 required of him. 



If the action of the horse is not materially impaired, it is bet- 

 ter to let the contraction alone, be it as great as it will. If the 

 contraction has evidently produced considerable lameness, the 

 owner of the horse will have to calculate between his value, if 

 cured, the expense of the cure, and the probability of failure. 



The medical treatment should alone be undertaken by a skilful 

 veterinary surgeon, and it will principally consist in abating any 

 inflammation that may exist, by local bleeding and physic, 

 paring the sole to the utmost extent that it will bear ; rasphi.o 

 the quarters as deeply as can be, without their being too much 

 weakened, or the coronary ring (see h, Fig. 37), injured ; rasp- 

 ing deeply Ukewise at the toe, and perhaps scoring at the toe 

 The horse is afterwards made to stand during the day in we\ 

 clay, placed in one of the stalls. He is at night moved intc 

 another stall, and his feet bound up thickly in wet cloths ; or he 

 is turned out into wet pasturage, with tips, or, if possible, with- 



