HOOD — HOOFS 



Horse Breeders, originally established in 1883 and registered 

 in 1897, whose district extends from Wedel, near Hamburg, 

 to the Eidel river. The clergy did a great deal to estab- 

 lish this breed in medieval times by introducing Oriental 

 stallions, and they are said to have been used by the French 

 in 1822 for heavy cavalry purposes. The Stud Book is 

 under Government supervision ; no unsound stallions may 

 serve in the district, and all mares are annually examined, 

 only the very best of either sex being registered, with the 

 result that the breed is notoriously healthy and hardy ; over 

 two thousand stallions and five thousand mares are in the 

 books. 



Hood. — The part of the clothing which is placed on the 

 head and neck. (See Bluffs Clothing^ 



Hoofs. — The hoofs are quite as great causes of anxiety 

 to owners as the hocks, and the proper treatment of them 

 is generally misunderstood, whilst to the carelessness and 

 ignorance of farriers many serious troubles are directly 

 traceable. In the first place, it may be mentioned that the 

 hoofs of a horse are not merely solid lumps of horn, as 

 some persons would seem to imagine from the way they treat 

 them, but hollow cases containing very delicate nerves and 

 arteries as well as bones. The so-called leaves which unite 

 the walls of the hoof to the interior parts number many 

 hundreds, and upon their condition depends a great deal. 

 The frog and bars of the feet are also common sources of 

 trouble to the horse owner, as apart entirely to the chances 

 of their being injured accidentally, the vagaries of the shoe- 

 ing smith are responsible for a great deal. A very common 

 cause of lameness is the reckless manner in which frogs and 

 bars are cut away, and soles pared down, through the ignorance 

 of the farrier and the indifference of those whose duty it is 

 to see that he does his work properly. 



Again, the practice of pressing the shoes in a red-hot 

 condition against the hoofs when they are being fitted is 



168 



