14 THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 



at the best, are subjects that have been so thoroughly 

 treated upon by veterinarians, professional drivers, and 

 gentlemen amateurs as to appear to leave nothing more to 

 he said. 



Still it is a fact that there are continually^ many of the 

 most promising horses going wrong — *^ going all to pieces," 

 to quote a common saying — in spite of being in the best of 

 hands, where no reasonable trouble or expense would be 

 counted too great whereby they could be kept right or 

 cured after going wrong. These things show that either 

 the teaching is at fault, or that little, seemingl^^ unimpor- 

 tant conditions, so slight as to be overlooked, are really of 

 great consequence. 



A great many horses have a hitch in the gait produced 

 b}^ driving at speed too far when the pulling weight was 

 great, or asking for a little too much speed of a colt. Ask- 

 ing the horse to speed right out before the proper amount 

 of slow work has been done on first leaving the stable, pro- 

 duces the same defect. Hitching is nearly as bad as crib- 

 bing, is unsightly and anno3ing, and cuts speed down equal 

 to absolute lameness. It is sometimes cured, but where one 

 confirmed hitcher is taught to again go square, hundreds 

 of square, j)ure-gaited horses might be kept soby *' waiting 

 a little." 



From a condition of absolute soundness, feet get sore, 

 get, in fact, in the same condition which is known to be the 

 sequel of acute founder neglected, and still without any 

 acute founder. Neglect of proper paring at reasonable 

 intervals; lack of suitable exercise; want of necessarj^ mois- 

 ture ; ill-fitting shoes which, by preventing the foot from 

 performing in all its parts the natural functions that tend 

 to the secretion of healthy horn and the preservation 

 through suitable action of proper shape; bruising of the 

 sole by contact Avith small stones in driving, these stones 

 being often picked up between the frog and web of the shoe 



