SHOEING. 103 



denominated "a picker." Sucli annoyances, with many others, might 

 be easily avoided, could the English smith only be prevailed upon not 

 to pare the sole so thin that blood bedews its surface, and then to make 

 the level of the diminished part the point whereto the crust is to be 

 lowered. 



Another probable consequence, attending the customary cutting away 

 of the horse's sole, has not been sufficiently considered. 



The shape of this part, its yielding character, and its position imme- 

 diately under the coffin-bone, all should be accepted as proofs that it is 

 of service in supporting the weight of the body. It proves nothing to 

 assert that if the sole is removed, the pedal bone will not fall down. 

 The burden may repose upon the numerous laminae and upon the bulg- 

 ing rim of the coronet, as well as drag upon the lateral cartilages. Here 

 is sufficient material to uphold even a greater load ; but can such a force 

 be arbitrarily imposed by human authority without provoking nature's 

 resentment ? The parts here named are the very regions which are the 

 common seats of foot disease. Ossified cartilages — irregular secretion 

 of coronary horn and laminitis, in the acute or in the chronic form — are 

 very common to stables ; so also is navicular disease, which the trim- 

 ming of the frog is also likely to induce. Horse proprietors, therefore, 

 would do well to reflect upon the above possibility, when their property 

 is again submitted to the unchecked abuses of the forge. 



Humaiiity is not pleaded in this case. Human interest alone is urged 

 in favor of the plan proposed. Every horse owner knows how common 

 it is for the animal to return tender-footed from the forge. Every person 

 can appreciate the unpleasant sensation experienced when a nail has 

 been pared to the quick. 



Immediate lameness, or violent exhibition of acute disease, is required 

 to convince some people that dumb animals feel anything ; but a pecuU- 

 arity displayed in the manner of placing the foot on the earth is, to the 

 author's mind, sufficient proof of some painful sensation. In two or 

 three days, the newly-exposed horn may resume its protective function, 

 and the mode of progressing, by such a time, is generally restored to its 

 accustomed soundness. But such is not invariably the case, and, when 

 it does happen, the seeds of future disaster may, nevertheless, have been 

 sown. Indeed, so conscious are dealers of the injury done to the horse's 

 foot by the rasp and the drawing-knife, that, as a rule, they avoid having 

 their new stock reshod while these animals remain in their possession. 



To rectify the foregoing evils, the author would humbly propose that 

 half an inch of crust should be allowed to protrude below a sole of mod- 

 erate thickness. That all idea of breadth of shoe affording the slightest 

 protection be at once abolished ; because the broad web has been proved, 



