THE HURa»E. 23 



FEET. 



The feet of the horse are of the utmost conse- 

 quence, as on the state of these his value in a great 

 measure depends. He should not only have a good 

 foot for the present, but one likely to stand all the 

 beating, battering, pricking, and bruising, to which 

 it is exposed on our hard and newly repaired roads, 

 at almost every step. Here is another cause of 

 wonder, that we have not more lame horses than we 

 have, particularly as most lamenesses are produced 

 by concussion. Nature, however, has wisely ordained 

 a provision to guard the animal creation from nu- 

 merous injuries to which it would otherwise be 

 liable; and so she haipin the present instance. The 

 horse bred in high and dry situations, in which the 

 soil is of a hard, stony, or rocky description, is 

 framed with a strong, obdurate hoof, very subject to 

 contraction. This, then, is the foot best adapted for 

 the purposes of the road. But nature intended that 

 these animals should go over the ground in their own 

 way, and that when they found one pace hurt their 

 feet, they should be at liberty to change it for 

 another ; or that if their feet became bruised, or 

 over-heated, they should find no impediment in quit- 

 ting the rugged and sharp path for the cool and velvet 

 grass. But man has arbitrarily, though necessarily, 

 reversed the benevolent design of nature. It is, 

 perhaps, superfluous to inquire how road horses are 

 now generally treated ; but in an essay expressly 

 written on the subject, nothing growing out of it of 

 interest should be omitted. In the first place, they 

 are shod with iron shoes, which are not only con- 

 ductors, but also retainers, of heat. Next, instead 

 of allowing them to choose their own paces on each 

 particular piece of road, those paces are chosen for 

 them ; and not only so, but likewise the road itself, 



