232 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



and blindly adopts it ; or else, with equal blindness and 

 indifference, leaves every thing to the almost equally 

 ignorant smith. Between the two, one can imagine 

 how the poor horse must fare. It is astonishing to 

 me that men can be so careless as to property so ex- 

 posed to hazard as are horses, especially when, at a 

 trifling expense of time and money, they might become 

 tolerably well informed in respect to the matter. Now, 

 I submit that the first thing that a man who owns a 

 horse should obtain is knowledge of the foot, and the 

 best method of protecting it ; because it is the foot, and 

 the condition of it, on which depends the value of the 

 animal, whether he be kept for pleasure or profit. The 

 owner of a horse should first study the foot in its anat- 

 omy and use, until every bone and particle are well 

 known to him in their location, character, and use. The 

 way that Nature feeds and nourishes its several parts ; 

 the points that need artificial defence, and how pro- 

 tected ; the diseases to which it is liable ; the curative 

 applications and contrivances needed when the organ 

 becomes injured or diseased, — these points, and other 

 like ones, should receive close and prolonged attention 

 until they become perfectly famihar. This is the prin- 

 ciple universally adopted and put in practice touching 

 any other class of property. The reason why this is not 

 the practice of horsemen is not certainly found in 

 any difficulty about understanding the subject to be 

 studied. As I have said before, there is no mystery 

 about the matter, save such as ignorance and passion, 



