BREAKING AND TRAINING. 



413 



animal in no small degree depend. The operation of such organs should, 

 therefore, be of more importance to the thorough-bred than they are to 

 any other description of quadruped. "Were these structures never fet- 

 tered, but the colt left to comprehend their use, its agility would be 

 increased, its stride would be lengthened, and its speed augmented. 



The racer chiefly employs the toe to bear weight upon, or this part 

 has to endure nearly all the stress sustained by the hoof while the 

 creature is running. Now, there are shoes known as "tips" which pro- 

 tect the forward horn, but which leave the elasticity of the backward 

 portions of the foot unfettered. This form of shoe is no novelty. It is 

 no crotchet of the author's, puffed into notice by a morbid fancy. It is 

 very humiliating, but it is necessary to make such an acknowledgment, 

 to take from a recommendation all suspicion of the personal or inter- 

 ested motives which are too frequently urged against those who advocate 

 any improvement in stable practice. The author is impelled to make 

 the suggestion simply by his interest in the subject. That the reader 

 may comprehend the difference between the two forms of shoe, and re- 

 spectively denominated a plate and a tip, the illustrations of each are 

 here reproduced from the article on Shoeing. 



A HODEBN RACING SHOE. 



AN ANCIENT RACING SHOE. 



A greater injury is inflicted, however, than has yet been named. 

 Blood horses are often affected with brittle hoofs. This condition of 

 horn renders the nailing on of shoes, even in ordinary cases, a matter 

 of some difficulty. It is a principle with smiths never, if possible, to 

 drive a nail twice into the same hole ; and these fastenings being made 

 to pierce the hard outer covering of the wall, the hold is, at all times, in 

 danger of breaking away ; but when the horn is abnormally dry or brit- 

 tle, the nails can scarcely be rendered secure by any possible artifice. 



The kind of hoof which prevails among the breed renders it very 

 desirable that the shoes generally worn should never be changed. Tips 

 being of smaller size especially, if a bit of steel were let in upon the toe, 



