232 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



from ignorance than obstinacy, and it would therefore be a 

 good and wise thing if every farrier were to be made 

 thoroughly acquainted with the anatomy of the horse's foot 

 and leg : he would then perceive what dire mischief he was 

 in reality doing while pursuing the ordinary stereotyped 

 course which his father and grandfather probably followed 

 before him. 



To look at this list of errors in review. First of all, the 

 frog should never be interfered with ; to pare it with a 

 knife is ruinous ; it ought to touch the ground instead of 

 being prevented from doing so : nature intended that it 

 should. It retains the hoof in proper shape at the heels, 

 prevents the tendency to slip, and in fact acts as the 

 natural buffer of the foot, giving it strength, security, and 

 elasticity, while its toughness enables it to travel over the 

 roughest country without shrinking or pain. It wards off 

 concussion, being surrounded by lateral cartilages which 

 may be described as yielding sidewalls, and is the contri- 

 vance supplied by nature for preserving the superimposed 

 structures from injury or passing hurt. Cutting into the 

 frog is, I am most firmly convinced, one of the chief causes 

 of thrush, and nothing can more clearly prove this than the 

 fact that diseased and wasted frogs, and thrushes of long 

 and obstinate standing, have been known to become com- 

 pletely cured by the adoption of a proper system of shoe- 

 ing — one that brought the frog not only near the ground, 

 but actually on it. 



Navicular disease, that terror of every horse-owner, is 

 without doubt largely induced by improper shoeing, coupled 



