Sandcrack ; its Cause. 1 37 



one of Ms great secrets of successful farming was 

 to get good men and keep them. He studied the 

 welfare of his men, and his men repaid him by 

 faithfully doing their duty, and loving and caring 

 for his horses and stock, because he loved and 

 cared for them. 



SANDCRACK. 



I now come to another troublesome complaint 

 of the foot. Ah ! how many are there who can 

 tell? only the man with large studs under his 

 care. The diseases, modifications, and compli- 

 cations are truly amazing and fearful to contem- 

 plate. Who will say that sandcrack is not as 

 bad as any other disease of the foot, and quite 

 as painful to the animal ? Who of my readers 

 has torn the nail of his finger down to the quick, 

 and experienced the pain when he has touched 

 anything with the injured finger ? He at least 

 will know something of the pain the poor horse 

 has to suffer when his feet are afflicted with sand- 

 crack. Sandcrack is a disease that is mostly met 

 with in horses working upon hard roads and 

 drawing heavy loads. In the cart horse it is 

 chiefly found in the hind feet, but in the lighter 

 breed of horses it is mostly confined to the fore 

 feet. Sandcrack is simply a bursting of the horny 

 matrix that holds together the horn fibres or horn 

 tubes of the hoof. It may only reach to a very 

 limited extent at the coronet, or it may extend 

 from the coronet to the ground surface. It may 

 come on gradually, or it may come on suddenly. 

 When it comes on suddenly it is attended with 



