306 THE FOOT. 



the foot prevents, to a very considerable degree, the descent of the sole and the 

 expansion of the heels below ; and it is likewise probable, that when the expansion 

 of the heels is prevented they often begin to contract. But here again nature, cut 

 off from oi:e resource, finds others. If one of the jugular veins is lost, the blood 

 pursues its course by other channels, and the horse does not appear to suffer in the 

 slio^htest degree. Thus also if the expansion of the heels below is diminished, 

 that of the cartilages above is made more use of. If the coffin-bone has not so much 

 descent downward, it probably acquires one backward, and the functions of the foot 

 are usefully if not perfectly performed. The plain proof of this is, that although 

 there are many horses that are injured or ruined by bad shoeing, there are others, 

 and they are a numerous class, wlio suffer not at all from good shoeing, and scarcely 

 even from bad. Except it be from accident, how seldom is the farmer's horse lame ! 

 and it might even be farther asked, how seldom is his foot much contracted ] Some 

 gentlemen who are careful of their horses have driven them twenty years, and 

 principally over the rough pavement of towns, without a day's lameness. Shoe- 

 ing may be a necessary evil, but it is not the evil which some speculative persons 

 have supposed it to be ; and the undoubted fact is, that when the horse is put to real 

 hard work, and when the injury produced by shoeing in destroying the expansibility 

 of the foot would most of all show itself, the foot lasts a great deal longer than the 

 leg ; nay, horsemen tell us that one pair of good feet is worth two pairs of legs. 



Having thus premised that contraction is not inevitably accompanied by lameness, 

 and that shoeing, with all its evils, does not necessarily injure the foot, those cases 

 of contraction, too numerous, which are the consequence of our stable management, 

 and which do cripple and ruin the horse, may be considered. There is nothing in the 

 appearance of the feet which would enable us to decide when contraction is or is not 

 destructive to the usefulness of the animal ; his manner of going, and his capability 

 for work, must be our guides. Lameness usually accompanies the beginning of con- 

 traction ; it is the invariable attendant on rapid contraction, but it does not always 

 exist when the wiring in is slow or of long standing. 



A very excellent writer, particularly when treating of the foot of the horse, Mr. 

 Blaine, has given us a long and correct list of the causes of injurious contraction, and 

 most of them are, fortunately, under the control of the owner of the animal. He 

 places at the head of them, neglect of paring. The hoof is continually growing, the 

 crust is lengthening, and the sole is thickening. This is a provision for the wear 

 and tear of the foot in an unshod state; but when it is protected by a shoe, and none 

 of the horn can be worn away by coming in contact with the ground, and the growth 

 of horn continues, the hoof grows high, and the sole gets thick, and, in consequence 

 of this, the descent of the sole and the expansion of the heels are prevented, and con- 

 traction is the result. The smith might lessen, if not prevent the evil, by carefully 

 thinning the sole and lowering the heels at each shoeing; but the first of these is a 

 matter of considerable labour, and the second could not be done effectually without 

 being accompanied by the first, and therefore they are both neglected. The prejudice 

 of many owners of horses assists in increasing the evil ; they imagine that a great 

 deal of mischief is done by cutting away the foot. Mischief may be the result of 

 injudicious cutting, when the bars are destroyed and the frog is elevated from the 

 ground ; but more evil results from the unyielding thickness of horn impairing the 

 elastic and expansive principle of the foot. If gentlemen would accasionally stand 

 by, and see that the sole is properly thinned, and the heels lowered, they would be 

 amply repaid in the comfort and usefulness of the horse. 



Ill-judged economy is another source of this disease. If the shoes of one smith will, 

 with ordinary work, last a little more than three weeks, while another contrives to 

 make his last six weeks, he is supposed to be the better workman and the more 

 honest man, and he gets the greater part of the custom. His shoe is suffered to 

 remain on during the whole time, to the manifest injury of the feet, and that injury is 

 materially increased by the greater thickness and weight of these shoes, and the 

 tightness with which they are fastened on, the nails being necessarily placed nearer 

 to the quarters, and possibly an additional nail or two used in the fastenina", and these 

 also applied at the quarters. There is no rule which admits of so little exception, as 

 that, once in about everv three weeks, the growth of horn which the natural wear of 

 the foot cannot get rid of, should be pared away — the toe should be shortened in most 

 feet the sole should be thinned, and the heels lowered. Every one who has carefully 



