F A U M E K S ' REGISTER 



353 



ON SHOEING IIOKSES. 



From llie Frankliu tainier, 



Nothin;:!; eiiffetiilt'rs so friiihtful a cliain of dis- 

 eases in a horse, all lendiniij to disable him, as im- 

 proper treataient of tiie atiim;d's feet. — Naiun; 

 had never laUen sreater pains lo Ibrm an exquisite 

 analomical specimen ol mechanical power liian 

 when it lormed the loot of" t!ie horse; and lo tliis 

 beauti/ul, dehcaie, anti couiplicated (ormaiiun, 

 does he o\ve his [lower of speed over most others 

 of the brute creation. In u state of nature, ihe 

 horse's loot is seldom, ifever, diseased ; in a state 

 ordomesiiciiy it is more or less unsound, in seven 

 cases out of ten. — In a state of naiiire, the loot, 

 beiiiij unencumbered by a shoe, is not prevented 

 Crom assuming that position on the irround which 

 keeps il in a sound condition, and enables each of 

 its componenl parts lo discharge their several 

 (imctions. In a stale of domesticity, the animtil 

 is obliged to wear a shoe, for the purpose of pro- 

 tecting its hool from the roughness of harsh roads; 

 and this shoe is generally so consiructed as to 

 inflict considerable injury upon Ihe toot, by inca- 

 pacitating its several component parts Irom per- 

 forming their functions, thereby producing a slate 

 of disease. Contracted hoolj sand-cracks, thrush, 

 grease, stiffness in the flexor tendon of the leg, 

 weakness in the pastern and knee joints, and a 

 tendency to genuflexion, are some among the 

 various disturbances pro lucej by improperly shoe- 

 ing a horse, so as to impede any of the necessary 

 actions of the loot. And yet most of the L )ndon 

 farriers, loially ignorant of the anatomy of the 

 horse's l()ot and of the various uses of its several 

 parts, apply the shoe so as alwavs lo produce the 

 €flecis we have just endeavored to describe. — 

 Havinir often befi)re observed that we nowbere 

 find such bad iiorsem:inship as in the London 

 parks — we may here add, that whenever we see 

 an awkward fellow irallop by, riding upon his curb, 

 and allowing his snaffle rein to hang loosely up 

 the horse's neck, we are sure, on fur:her exami- 

 nation, to find the poor animal snifering from bad 

 shoeing, ignorance in riding seems always Ihe 

 concomitant of ignorance in treatment of ihe 

 horse ; and he who takes no trouble to learn to do 

 the Ibrmer with the least possil)le inconvvnience to 

 the animal, will ])ay little or no attention to tlie 

 latter. 



One of the most important organs of (he foot of 

 a horse is that portion which every body knows 

 under the designation o\' 'the frog. Upon the 

 health of this organ depends that of the whole 

 loot; and 3'et the ignorant liuricr seems to have 

 conceived so violent an antipathy to this frog, that 

 he always endeavors to cut as much of it away as 

 he possibly can, without actually wounding the 

 animal ; and as li-om the mode of shoeing gene- 

 rally ailopied a great portion of the frog is often 

 dried up and decayed, the blacksmith finds no 

 great dilFiculty in parinir it away to almost nothing. 

 The consequence of this we shall endeavor to ex- 

 plain, hy describing the use of the frog. 



This organ is seated at the heel, just beneath 

 the hoof, and behnul its bars. It forms a sort of 

 case l(Dr the end ofthe flexor tendon, which it cov- 

 ers like a bulb. It likewise secretes an unctuous 

 liquor which serves to keep the horn of the hoof 

 moist and to prevent it from cracking. The frog 

 is also an elastic wedge, which contracts and ex 

 Vor,. Vlll-45 



pands with 'he hoof, and when this wedge re- 

 ceives its due |)ressure as the animal walk?, it 

 keeps the bars in their projier stale of expansion 

 and counteracts any tendency in the hoof to per- 

 manent contraction. — Thus, then, its functions are 

 indispensable to keep the loot sound ; lor if it were 

 destroyed, the bottom of ihe flexor tendon of the- 

 lei: would be exposed to disease; again, if it did 

 not secrete oil to keep the hoof moist, the latter 

 would crack ; as is often the case, lastly, if it were 

 dried up and deprived of iis elastic (lower, the 

 loot would become permanenily contrailed, and 

 the horse lame, which is a matter of very common 

 occurrence. 



'i'wo ihiiiirsare evident from what we have 

 just stated. — 1. The secretion, elasticity, and me- 

 chanical action of (he ("rog, are absolutely necs- 

 sary to keep the loot of the horse in a sound slate. 

 2. If, from improperly placing the shoe, or from 

 any other cause, the hug should be deprived of 

 the stimulus necessar}' to enable it to carry on its 

 natural acimn, ihe loot must fill into a stale of 

 disease. With relerence to this latter, from ihe. 

 position of the loot, and the resources provided by 

 nature, it can occur but very seldom that any ac- 

 cidental cause deprives the frog of its power of ac- 

 tion ; and as it is an undoubted lact that the shoe, 

 when improperly put on (as it is in seven cases 

 out often) produces this eflect, by raising the heel 

 and preventing the fro<r from receiving ihe slight- 

 est pressure — and the necessary pressure can 

 alone irive the proper stimulus — it is reasonable (o 

 conclude that, in most cases of diseased feet in 

 horses the diseased action is the eflect of bad 

 shoeiuiT. 



lithe farrier would observe (he horse in a slate 

 of nauiie, — if he would examine the yet unbroken, 

 and consrqueinly unshodden colt, he would find 

 I hat ihe broad, circular loot presses (iilly on the 

 ground, the frog receiving as the animal walks, at 

 each elasiic reliound caused by (he play of thfc 

 pasiern, a sliirht pressure against Ihe ground, 

 which exciies it, keeps it in healihy action, and in- 

 deed preserves the whole loot from disease. He 

 would also perceive, after a more minute observa- 

 tion, not only is the frog an elasiic body, but ihal 

 the hoof Itself, ihoui:h a horny substance, is elas- 

 tic, and that it contracts and expands by the ac- 

 tion of ihe muscles ofthe sensible foot, of which it 

 IS only the case or covering, preservin<r it from 

 injury, but \ielding lo ail its impulses. He would 

 then, if he were not a dolt reason upon what he- 

 had observed, and infer that (i^)r a horse to be 

 sound ui on its feet, it must walk in that ex'ict po- 

 sition which nature designed for il ; and that anv 

 deviation Irom that position is unnatural, and de- 

 prives the horse of a portion of his power. He 

 would also think that nature, by placing the ani- 

 mal firmly on his heels, and not on the fi-ont edgr, 

 of iis hoof, as most horses stand when improperly- 

 shod, did so lor some wise purpose, and that the 

 slight blows gi\ en to the frog as the animal walk- 

 ed, were not without an object, and thereii)re 

 ought (o be continued even wlien the shoes vvf^e 

 on, — unless, indeed he had the presumption, like 

 ihe be-breeched an i be-bootfd louts in London 

 livery stables, to lai.cy that he new better than 

 nature. He would at last conclude that the shoe 

 ouirht to be made to fit the horse's (iiot, as s!i0f.« 

 of Chiistian folks are made, not (lie foot psrtd ai d 

 burned down to fit the shoe j and that in fining 



