THE HORSE. 



19 



of health) iDeing wholly owing- to the spread, 

 will, of course, disappear with the annihi- 

 lation of the spread.' * 



" Although Mr. Goodwin has not here 

 explained what he conceives to be the 

 origin or cause of the spread, it is evident 

 we both concur in viewing it rather as a 

 deviation from health or nature than a cir- 

 cumstance worthy of the consideration it 

 has been accounted of by Mr. Clark. 



" Color. — Hoofs are black or white, or 

 some intermediate shade, or they may ex- 

 hibit a black and white striped or marbly 

 aspect. It is an old observation, and one 

 that passes current among us at the present 

 day, that black or dark-shaded hoofs pos- 

 sess greater strength and durability, and 

 indicate less proneness in the feet to dis- 

 ease, than such as are composed of white 

 or striped horn. The rationale of which 

 appears to be, that white horn (the same as 

 white hair) is the product of parts weaker 

 by nature than such as produce dark or 

 black horn, and, being weaker, consequently 

 are more liable to disease, less able to resist 

 those impressions that tend to disorder. 

 White hoofs are more porous than black 

 ones, and consequently absorb moisture and 

 lose it again by evaporation with more fa- 

 cility: a fact that may probably aid us in 

 accounting for the failures attributed to 

 them. 



"Magnitude. — It requires no veterinary 

 skill to discover any very material dispro- 

 portion in the magnitude of the foot : it 

 will strike us at once as being large or 

 small, in comparison to the limb or the size 

 of the animal. A foot of any description 

 that is out of proportion is to the horse 

 possessing it more or less objectionable : 

 but, for all that, these out-of-proportion feet, 

 abstractedly considered, have their advan- 

 tages as weU as their disadvantages. Sain- 

 bel tells us, that a large wide hoof, by ex- 

 tending the surface of tread, ' will increase 

 the stability and j&rmness of the fabric;' 

 but then, he adds, ' this partial advantage 

 grows into an evil when it becomes applied 



* Goodwin's New System of Shoeing, edit, second, 

 page 33. 



to a body capable of translation, and con- 

 sidered in a state of actual motion ; be- 

 cause, then, the mass and weight of the 

 foot overburthen the muscles of the ex- 

 tremity.' And because, I would add, the 

 surfaces of contact being greater, the attrac- 

 tion of cohesion becomes greater, and so 

 much the more muscular force is required 

 to raise the foot (particularly in moist 

 ground) from the earth. Besides which, a 

 large foot is apt to become objectionable 

 from its striking, during action, the opposite 

 leg. On the other hand, it is contended, 

 that a large foot will not sink so deep into 

 soft ground as a small one, and conse- 

 quently will not demand so great an effort 

 of strength to draw it out. This is an 

 argument, however, that can only hold good 

 under the supposition, that in both cases 

 the muscular strength is equal, which we 

 know but rarely to happen, — in general, 

 broad or flat-footed horses possessing supe- 

 rior strength ; small, narrow-footed ones, 

 superior speed. There cannot be a doubt 

 about a large foot being unfavorable for 

 speed, a small one for stability; neither 

 one nor the other can be indiscriminately 

 found fault with ; both within certain limits 

 possess their respective advantages ; though 

 to turn out as such, they each of them re- 

 quire to be combined with suitable confor- 

 mation and action. 



" Large bulky hoofs are found to be 

 mechanically weaker than others, in conse- 

 quence of being composed of a thin, soft, 

 porous description of horn. Sainbel ascribes 

 all this to ' a relaxation of the fibres com- 

 posing the hoof: in which case, the diame- 

 ters of the vessels are increased, the porosi- 

 ties are multiplied, and the fluids abound 

 in them in too great quantities ; conse- 

 quently this kind of foot is soft, tender, and 

 sensible.' Small feet, on the contrary, in 

 general possess a close -woven horn, thick 

 in substance, and consequently prove strong: 

 they are rather oval than circular in figure, 

 with great depth of substance, and are 

 found to be of a durable nature. ' In feet 

 of this description,' says Sainbel, ' from the 

 too close union and too close tension of 



