58 HORSE AND MAN. 



These pegs are apt to contract the foot, or make it 

 thrushy, by pinching and narrowing the frog. 



' The frog may be pared to stimulate its growth, 

 and the cleft opened ; otherwise it may be left un- 

 touched,' &c. 



These directions for shoeing on * improved prin- 

 ciples ' are taken verbatim from the ' United States' 

 Army Tactics on Horseshoeing,' and are quoted by 

 Mr. M. I. Treacy, Veterinarian to the 7th Cavalry, 

 in an article on Horseshoeing in The United Service 

 Magazine for February 1884. 



One excuse — I cannot call it a reason— for open- 

 ing the heel and thinning the sole would be comical, 

 but for the injury which it has wrought to thousands 

 of horses. The advocates of the knife say that they 

 are aware of the sensitive and delicate structure of 

 the interior of the hoof, and that the operations of 

 opening and thinning are necessary to preserve those 

 structures. According to them, in this climate the 

 horny parts of the hoof have too rapid a growth 

 (why or how is not stated), so that they prevent 

 expansion, and pinch the internal structures. So, 

 by ' thinning the sole until it yields to the pressure 

 of the thumb,' and cutting through the heel, they 

 think that the internal structures are relieved from 

 constriction ! Mayhew very quaintly and truly says 

 that it would be just as sensible to thin and 



