238 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



Before closing the present chapter, I should like to warn 

 horse-owners still further against the ordinary uses of the 

 smith's drawing-knife, rasp, and heated iron, all of which 

 are, as I have said, most lamentably abused. By the first, 

 especially, numerous " accidents " are made to occur. The 

 sole of the foot being all pared away and exposed close 

 to the earth, induces it to assume a harshness of texture 

 totally opposed to its natural qualities, which are soft and 

 yielding — and this change of structure is a fruitful source 

 of corns. The outer portion of the sole rests upon the 

 web of the shoe ; the coffin-bone descends, and not meet- 

 ing with any yielding substance to play upon, the flesh is 

 pressed between the inferior surface of the bone and the 

 upper surface of the shoe, causing malignant corns. 



Again, the educated smith, in order to give what he 

 terms *' a better hold," drives the fastening nails into the 

 black or outer substance of the wall of the foot ; whereas 

 the untutored Arab preserves his horses' feet by permitting 

 the walls to descend about half-an-inch below the sole, and 

 then driving the nails through this portion of the hoof. By 

 so doing, he averts the evil consequences of inserting iron 

 into the brittle substance, and secures at the same time 

 the resistance and tough qualities of the complex covering 

 of the foot. While the English smith is labouring to give 

 a tight hold, he is in reality involving three distinct perils 

 — firstly, pricking the sensitive foot, should the nail chance 

 to turn a little bit on one side — a thing which very often 

 happens ; secondly, driving a nail too fine, or, in other 

 words, too near the white horn — the consequence of which 



