WEAKNESS OF THE FOOT. 427 



cartilages. The extent to wliicK this disease exists in these disti-icts from 

 the continued j^crnicious system of breeding from parents affected with it, 

 will render its removal, even with the most careful attention to breeding, 

 a matter attended with much difficulty, and extending over a considerable 

 time. Although side-bones, as the result of hereditary predisposition, do 

 not as a rule cause lameness, or materially deteriorate the usefulness of 

 the agricultural horse, it should be remembered by the breeder that it is 

 a disease which renders the animal unsound, and consequently consider- 

 ably reduces his commercial value. Concussion is the most frequent ex- 

 citing cause of ossification of the cartilage. ' Frora the combined opera- 

 tion ' (says Mr. W. Spooner, in his work on the ' Foot of the Horse ') ' of 

 great Aveight and high action, the feet, and particularly the heels, come 

 with great force on the ground. The cartilages, being embedded in the 

 heels of the feet, are, therefore, the parts that receive the greatest degree 

 of concussion, the consequence of which is that subacute inflammation is 

 set up, and the secreting vessels deposit ossific instead of cartilaginous 

 matter, in the room of that which is absorbed in the usual process of 

 nature.' 



It sometimes arises from direct injury to the parts, such as over-reach. 

 "When the result of the latter, the ossification is confined to the injured 

 cartilage. Side-bones are more frequently met -with in the fore than in 

 the hind- feet, but when hereditary, all the feet will not unfrequently be 

 found affected. 



No evident inflammation of the foot, or great, or perhaps eveu per- 

 ceptible lameness, accompanies this change ; a mere shght degree of 

 stiffness may have been observed, which, in a horse of more rapid pace, 

 would have been lameness. Even when the change is completed, there is 

 not in any cases anything more than a slight increase of stiffness, Httle, 

 or not at all, interfering with the usefulness of the horse. When this 

 altered structure appeal's in the lighter horse, the lameness is more decided, 

 and means should be taken to arrest the progress of the change. These 

 are bHsters or firing ; but after the parts have become bony, no operation 

 will restore the cartilage. When the ossific deposit is thi'own out on one 

 side of the foot only, which not unfrequently occurs, the operation of 

 neurotomy on the affected side will, as has been before stated, be found a 

 very valuable remedy. 



Connected with ringbone the lameness may be very great. This has 

 been spoken of. 



WEAKNESS OP THE FOOT. 

 This is more accui^ately a bad foi'mation than a disease ; often, indeed, 

 the result of disease, but in. many instances the natural construction of 

 the foot. The term weak foot is familiar to every horseman, and the con- 

 sequence is too severely felt by all who have to do with horses. In the 

 slanting of the crust from the coronet to the toe, a less angle is almost 

 invariably formed, amounting probably to not more than forty instead of 

 forty-five degrees ; and after the horse has been worked for one or two 

 years, the line is not straight, but a httle indented or hollow, midway 

 between the coronet and the toe. This has been described as the accom- 

 paniment of pumiced feet, but it is often seen in weak feet, that, although 

 they might become pumiced by severity of work, do not otherwise have 

 the sole convex. The crust is not only less oblique than it ought to be, 

 but it has not the smooth even appearance of the good foot. The surface 

 is sometimes irregularly roughened, but it is much oftener roughened 

 in circles or rings. The form of the crust likewise presents too much 

 the appearance of a cone ; the bottom of the foot is unnaturally wide in 



