126 Management and Treatment of the Horse. 



Another, and the most common cause of corns, is 

 allowing the shoes to remain too long on the 

 horse's feet; nothing is more injurious than to 

 allow a shoe to remain too long on the foot, yet 

 many owners of horses, to save a few shillings 

 per year, will let the shoes remain on the horse 

 for six weeks and two months at a stretch, at the 

 risk of producing corns, and spraining the back 

 sinews by an extra amount of leverage caused by 

 the lengthened growth of the toe. The shoe re- 

 maining on too long is sure to become embedded 

 in the heel of the foot, consequently the hoof 

 grows down on the outside of the shoe and the 

 bearing is thus thrown on to the angular portion 

 of the sole. Continual pressure on the sole is 

 sure to induce inflammation and corns, the shoe 

 being on a long time gets loosened at the heels, 

 which admits of gravel between it and the crust, 

 which having accumulated at the angles naturally 

 insinuates itself into the heels and produces a 

 sore. As I said before, nothing can be more 

 injudicious than to allow the shoes to remain too 

 long on; even if they are not worn out they 

 should be taken off every twenty-one days and 

 re-adjusted to free the feet from long-continued 

 pressure. In shoeing, too, the blacksmith will 

 often resort to that injurious and ridiculous cut- 

 ting and shaping of the foot, and cutting away 

 the bars. This renders it necessary that the shoe 

 should be levelled inward, so as to accommodate 

 it to their senseless cutting and shaping of the 

 foot ; consequently an unnatural disposition to 

 contraction is induced by this slanting inward 



