62 SHOEING. 



brought on by immoderate work, or standing idle in the 

 stable ; and sometimes depending, also, on constitutional or 

 hereditary taint. When the nervous structure of any part of 

 the body is impaired, it oners very little resistance to the 

 encroachments of disease. The best means of preventing 

 contraction of the hoof, is to breed from stallions and mares 

 that are free from it ; to break colts, and bring them into 

 work, at a proper age ; and when brought into the stable, to 

 feed them properly, and work them with consideration. If a 

 young horse is brought into work before he comes to maturity, 

 there will be an undue expenditure of vital power. A horse 

 in a state of nature takes proper and sufficient exercise, and 

 the friction to which the feet are exposed is sufficient to wear 

 away the useless horn ; but when he is taken into the stable, 

 his shoes nailed to the hoofs, and is made to stand for several 

 days together without any exercise, is it strange that the feet 

 should become diseased, or contracted ? Sometimes a natural 

 drain, or issue, is formed in one or both feet ; that is, a thrush 

 takes place ; but the thrush is an evil, though less than it has 

 a tendency to remove. (See Thrush, part Second.) The 

 term contraction of the hoof is sometimes improperly applied ; 

 for in all those cases of chronic lameness that have been sup- 

 posed to depend upon contraction of the hoof, though the 

 contraction has been removed, the lameness has continued. 

 The general application of the term contraction has been 

 often the cause of obscuring the real nature of the lameness 

 which has been so named, and has led to many contrivances, 

 in the way of shoeing, for expanding the hoof ; such as forc- 

 ing it apart by means of a screw. 



If we look at the real nature of contractions, we shall find 

 that they originate, generally, in an excessive use of the organ 

 and bad stable management ; therefore the only probable 

 means of restoration is a long run at grass. 





