THE horse's foot, AND HOW TO SHOE IT. 243 



as it were, causing the bars and wall of the hoof to 

 expand laterally. This "lateral-expansion" theory is 

 at variance with my opinion. 



Practically there can be no lateral expansion of the 

 horny substances of the foot. Much less likely is it 

 that a soft, yielding, elastic substance like the frog 

 could overcome the resistance of dense, solid, inelastic 

 substance such as composes the walls, bars, and sole of a 

 horse's foot. I do not say that by artificial processes, 

 such as sawing and cutting and boring, the walls of the 

 hoof cannot be laterally expanded, without the employ- 

 ment of any great degree of skill, either; for it requires 

 no great effort for a strong, able-bodied man to saw 

 the leg off at the knee-joint, or where it makes its 

 junction with the body, for that matter. A knife and 

 saw in the hand of a hobbyist can do most any thing. 

 I think that fifty dollars is a high price for sawing 

 open a horse's foot ; although some differ from me, and 

 hold it to be astonishingly cheap. In this way, lateral 

 expansion can indeed be gotten ; but in no other way. 

 It is this 'lateral-expansion" theory which has been a 

 source of torture to the horse. In order to accommo- 

 date its claim, soles have been pared away until the 

 blood trickled ; bars dug out until not the least trace 

 of them remained ; Nature's cushion — the frog — been 

 shaved down until only a little line and fragment of it 

 was left; heels wedged open with forcible pressures, 

 and even lacerated with the teeth of a saw : and the 

 edge of the satire is felt only when we remember 



