FAULTS INSEPARABLE FROM STABLES. 251 



which the body would possess, were the quadruped journeying up the 

 side of a hill. By the sloping nature of the ground, the weight of the 

 frame is partially removed from the insensitive bones ; and to such an 

 extent as the osseous structures are relieved, is the burden thrown upon 

 the flexor tendons, or upon the back sinews. It is imperative for the 

 health of bone that it should endure almost continuous pressure. On 

 the other hand, tendon or sinew feels no pain from occasional tension ; 

 but pressure, if long sustained, produces the acutest agony. When one 

 structure is denied to fulfill the uses for which it was created, and another 

 structure is condemned to discharge services for which it never was 

 designed, the first soon degenerates, from not having sufficient employ- 

 ment, while the second speedily becomes disorganized, from the necessity 

 to perform too much labor. 



Bone, tendon, and cellular tissue almost compose the shin and the foot 

 of the animal. Horsemen know how difficult it is to make and keep the 

 legs of a stabled quadruped hard and fine. It is, however, folly to nib 

 and to bandage while inactivity is permitted to generate congestion. 

 No application can possibly destroy the effect while that cause is allowed 

 to be in operation. Nor can the foot secrete sound horn while the exer- 

 cise which is imperative for health is withheld. No shoe can give that 

 which is dependent upon motion. There are many more pieces of iron 

 curved, hollowed, raised, and indented, than the author has cared to 

 enumerate. All> however, have failed to restore health to the hoof. 

 Some, by enforcing a change of position, may, for a time, appear to 

 mitigate the evil ; but none can, in the long run, cure the disorder under 

 which the horn evidently suffers. 



Anointing the hoof, or using various stoppings, are equally fruitless. 

 Both leg and foot, after a day of hard labor, only return to the stable to 

 undergo more excessive, because more continuous, fatigue. The sloping 

 pavement renders ease an impossibility. The exhaustion cannot be ban- 

 ished from limbs forced to occupy such ground. Longer rest but induces 

 additional enervation. 



The inquiry suggested by the above remarks is, whether a horse does 

 not return with eagerness to its stable ? Is it natural for a creature to 

 exhibit eagernefes when it enters the abode of its agony ? In answer to 

 the foregoing, it may be advanced that all grades of inferior life which 

 exist under the care of man are in so unnatural a condition as allows no 

 inference to be drawn from apparently voluntary actions. Birds were 

 intended to cleave the air. No one can believe but the goldfinch must 

 be more happy when bathing its wings in light, and freely sailing on the 

 atmosphere, than when the gay spirit is cramped within one of those 

 small cages in which certain people delight to confine the joyous heart. 



