PRACTICAL HOESESHOEING. 85 



admirably fits them to admit and limit, to a proper extent, the 

 expansion of the foot, as well as to powerfully oppose any dis- 

 position there may be in the hoof to contract, by assisting the 

 heels in retaining their natural form. 



Indefensible Practices. — There may be dift'erences of opin- 

 ion among authorities as to minor details in shoeing, but there 

 is one practice not open to argument, and which all alike se- 

 verely condemn, and that is the utterly senseless and atrocious 

 custom so characteristic of the common every-day horseshoer, 

 of thinning out the sole and trimming or mutilating the frog. 

 No man has ever been able to assign a reason for acting contrary 

 to the first principles of his own work by destroying that which 

 he is aiming to preserve, and yet this has been and is the most 

 frequent procedure of so-called farriers in their treatment of the 

 frog and sole. They persist, with an obstinacy which sets com- 

 mon sense at defiance, in paring and hollowing out the sole even 

 to the quick, and to forming an exact "fine frog,'' regardless of 

 consequences, though these are of the most serious nature and 

 aifect the vital integrity of the living animal. 



Thinning out the Sole. — From the connection, thickness 

 and flexibility of the horny sole, as well as from its arch-like 

 external contour, it is wholly destined by nature to serve as a 

 cushion to the sensitive sole (velvety tissue) which rests upon it. 

 By hollowing away the sole in paring, it dries and shrinks by 

 exposure ; the horse loses his natural defense against violent 

 shocks of a pavement, or any kind of external violence, and 

 thus the sensitive sole becomes easily inflamed by being bruised 

 or wounded (disease called villitis). 



Trimming the Frog. — The horny frog is also designed for 

 contact with the ground for the prevention of jar and injury to 

 the limb, and the presence of this thick, elastic, compressible 



