CONTRACTION. 305 



and the receding coffin-bone. Some efforts have been made to palliate the disease, 

 but they have been only to a slight degree successful. If horses, on the first ap- 

 pearance of flat feet, were turned out in a dry place, or put into a box for two or 

 three months, sufficient stress would not be thrown on the laminae to increase the 

 evil, and time might be given for the growth of horn enough in the sole to support 

 the coffin-bone; yet it is much to be doubted whether these horses would ever be 

 useful, even for ordinary purposes. The slowest work required of them would drive 

 the coffin-bone on the sole, and the projection would gradually reappear, for no power 

 and no length of time can again unite the separated leaves of the coffin-bone and the 

 hoof. All that can be done in the way of palliation is by shoeing. Nothing must 

 press on the projecting and pumiced part. If the projection is not considerable, a 

 thick bar shoe is the best thing that can be applied ; but should the sole have much 

 descended, a shoe with a very wide web, bevelled off so as not to press on the part, 

 may be used. These means of relief, however, are only temporary, the disease will 

 proceed ; and, at no great distance of time, the horse will be useless. 



The occasional removal of the shoe, and compelling the horse to stand for a while 

 on the crust and laminae, has been resorted to. The bar shoe and the leathern sole, 

 and occasional dressing with tar ointment have had their advocates, and it is suffi 

 ciently plain that the pumiced foot should have plenty of cover. 



A somewhat similar affection, known by the name of a " Seedy Toe," is thus de« 

 scribed by Mr. W. C. Spooner : — " It can scarcely be called a disease, but it is rathei 

 a natural defect, which may be considerably increased by labour and bad shoeing. 

 It arises from too great dryness of the horn, which renders it brittle, and causes ita 

 fibres to separate. There is a want of that tough, elastic material which connects 

 the longitudinal fibres together, and produces that strong bond of union between them 

 and the horny laminae and the sole. There is a hollow space within the foot, which 

 sometimes extends upward and around, so as to admit a large probe. Neither the 

 bone nor the laminae, however, are exposed, but are still protected by the internal por- 

 tion of the crust. The only thing to be done is to anoint the foot occasionally, par- 

 ticularly the affected part, with tar and grease. A blister may also be applied to ex- 

 cite the developement of a new growth of horn, that which is become dry and brittle 

 being occasionally cut away."* 



CONTRACTION. 



The cut, page 295, will ccive a fair idea of the young healthy foot, approaching 

 nearly to a circle, and of which the quarters form the widest part, and the inner quar- 

 ter (this is the near foot) rather wider than the outer. This shape is not long pre- 

 served in many horses, fjut the foot increases in length, and narrows in the quarters, 

 and particularly at the heel, and the frog is diminished in width, and the sole be- 

 comes more concave, and the heels higher, and lameness, or at least a shortened and 

 feeling action, ensues. 



It must be premised that there is a great deal more horror of contracted heels than 

 there is occasion for. Many persons reject a horse at once if the quarters are wiring 

 in ; but the fact is, that although this is an unnatural form of the hoof, it is slow of 

 growth, and nature kindly makes that provision for the slowly altered form of the 

 hoof which she does in similar cases — she accommodates the parts to the change of 

 form. As the hoof draws in, the parts beneath, and particularly the coffin-bone, and 

 especially the heels of that bone, diminish ; or, after all, it is more a change of form 

 than of capacity. As the foot lengthens in proportion as it narrows, so does the cof- 

 fin-bone, and it is as perfectly adjusted as before to the box in which it is placed, 

 ts laminae are in as intimate and perfect union with those of the crust as before 

 the hoof had begun to change. On this account it is that many horses, with very 

 contracted feet, are perfectly sound, and no horse should be rejected merely be- 

 cause he has contraction. He should undoubtedly be examined more carefully, and 

 with considerable suspicion; but if he has good action, and is otheiwise unexcep- 

 tionable, there is no reason that the purchase should not be made. A horse with 

 contracted feet, if he goes soimd, is better than another with open but weak heels. 



The opinion is perfectly erroneous that contraction is the necessary consequence 

 of shoeing. There can be no doubt that an inflexible iron ring being nailed tc 



* Spooner on the Foot of the Horse. 

 86* 2o 



