THE HOOF. 23 



enlarged and modified to perform a series of offices. 

 In material and position it is identical with the talon 

 of the lion or tiger and the claw of the eagle. It 

 may seem strange that the delicate pinky nail of a 

 lady's finger should be one and the same with the 

 hoof of the horse, but such is really the case. 



Now for the structure of the hoof, or nail, of 

 the horse. 



Instead of being a mere lump of horn, it is a 

 sort of horny case, or box, intended to protect the 

 sensitive structure which it surrounds. The offices 

 which it serves are many, though several of those 

 offices are practically ignored by civilised man. 



Indeed, even those who really know the structure 

 of the horse have made the most curious mistakes 

 about the work of the hoof. One writer states that 

 the horse was intended to live on moist or even 

 marshy land, whereas such ground is the very worst 

 for the hoof, and is carefully avoided by the horse when- 

 ever it can find hard and dry ground to stand upon. 



The animal always instinctively tries to find a 

 hard surface on which to stand. In America the 

 ' mustangers ' — i.e. the men who get their living by 

 catching and training the mustangs, or wild horses — 

 invariably choose the hardest and stoniest places lor 

 the ' corrals,' in which they keep the horses until 

 they are wanted. 



