THE horse's foot, AND HOW TO SHOE IT. 247 



than one-half that of the toe. Both heels are equal in 

 height." 



Generally speaking, the toes are left too long. It 

 should be remembered that it is the front portion of the 

 foot that would be most worn, were it not protected by 

 the shoe ; and, owing to this fact, feet with projecting 

 toes would never occur in nature. The length of the 

 human foot could not be materially increased without 

 greatly incommoding us when walking or running ; and 

 so, when the front of the horse's hoof is allowed to pro- 

 trude as we often see it, he labors under great incon- 

 venience, and possibly pain, when in motion. The sug- 

 gestion of Nature is, that the toe should be kept duly 

 shortened, the front edge of the shoe drawn a little back 

 from the rim of the wall, and rounded, so that the metal 

 will take the shape which the hoof would have if the 

 wall were undefended with metallic ' covering, and ex- 

 posed to the friction at every spring. 



I propose, at this point, to quote at length from a 

 treatise, on the same subject of which we are treating, 

 by Lafosse, a French veterinarian and author, who wrote 

 in the first half of the eighteenth century, and from 

 whose works more ideas have been taken, without any 

 acknowledgment, by the writers of the last fifty years on 

 the horse's foot, than from any other author in any branch 

 of literature that I can recall. Lafosse, according to 

 my judgment, is the wisest man who ever wrote upon 

 the subject. Indeed, no considerable improvement has 

 been made, as I think, in what he wrote in regard to the 



