CHAPTER VIII. ) 



Quarter and Toe Cracks. 



Quarter cracks are largeh^ due to the dry, 

 brittle and contracted condition of the wall of 

 the foot. There is not room inside the walls to 

 allow for proper and necessary expansion when 

 the horse's weight comes on the foot and some- 

 thing oives wav, and naturally it comes in the 

 weakest part of the wall — the inside quarter — 

 although many times the outside lateral quar- 

 ter is the one affected. If the crack is neglected 

 the sensitiye part of the foot — the laminae — is 

 forced outwardly into the fissure caused by the 

 separation of the wall, and as the two edges of 

 the horn are constantly "sawing" while the 

 horse is in motion, the pain caused by the con- 

 stant squeezing of the protruding sensitiye part 

 can be imagined better than it can be described. 

 Sometimes a crack will start at the top near 

 the hair, and split about half wa^' down. An- 

 other will begin at the bottom and split about 

 half the distance to the hair while, in seyere 

 cases — the majority of cases — the crack will 

 open from the shoe, to and into the coronary 

 band. 



In the first case cut away the horn on each 

 side of the crack ; cut it back well on each side, 

 making a \'-shaped grooye ; file with the corner 

 of the rasp a deep grooye just below its lower 

 extremity and across it to keep it from extend- 

 ing lower, and fire it across the top in the cor- 

 onary band, being sure you are aboye the ex- 

 treme upper end of the fissure, so that when 

 the new wall grows down there will not be a 



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