420 PLANTAR SYSTEiM. 



Spread. — By the spread is meant, the inclination the hoof 

 manifests when left unshod, around the toe and sides, to bulge, 

 or protrude at bottom, whereby its ground-surface becomes aug- 

 mented, particularly around the outer quarter. To a certain 

 extent this is worthy of observation ; although, in my opinion, 

 it is to be regarded rather as an effect of pressure than one of 

 abstract growth. The surface of inclination upon which the horn 

 is produced has no such spread, nor can the hoof itself be said, 

 fro7n growth alone, to have any such natural tendency ; but, as 

 it continues to grow and shoot beyond the inner foot that pro- 

 duced it, and to which it was so intimately united, it yields to 

 the pressure of the animal's weight, and bulges or spreads out, 

 and more at the outer side than the inner, in consequence of the 

 pressure tending more in that direction. If we examine a num- 

 ber of hoofs of neglected growth, and consequent exuberance 

 and deformity, of various descriptions, we may discover that, in 

 them all, the spread seems to have been the first or incipient 

 deviation from that line of growth viewed as consistent with the 

 health and well-doing of the foot. It is only in the unshod hoof 

 that any spread is found : as soon as the ground-surface comes 

 to be confined by a shoe, pressure can no longer exert its influ- 

 ence to produce such consequences. 



Mr. Goodwin aptly observes, that " to take the form of the 

 hoof correctly, we must strip it of its exuberant or superfluous 

 parts, the same as one would pare the superabundant growth off 

 our own nails. The neglect of this necessary preparative has 

 led to considerable difference of opinion about the natural, 

 healthy, or true form of the ground-surface of the foot. Mr. 

 Bracy Claik, I conceive, has inclined to the side of error in this 

 particular; though, in the substitution of the cylindrical for the 

 conical figure of the entire hoof, he has certainly the advantage 

 of other writers. His natural foot (Plate \) is one with great 

 spread to it, much of which the smith would find it necessary to 

 deprive it of, even on the Jirst shoeing; and the protuberance of 

 the outer quarter (wl>ich Mr. C. points out as an attribute of 

 health) being wholly oiving to the spread, will, of course, dis- 

 appear with the annihilation of the spread*." 



Although Mr. Goodwin has not here explained what he con- 

 ceives to be the origin or cause of the spread, it is evident we 

 both concur in viewing it rather as a deviation from health or 

 nature than a circumstance worthy of the consideration it has 

 been accounted of by Mr. Clark. 



Colour. — Hoofs are black or white, or some intermediate 

 shade, or they may exhibit a black and white strijicd or marbly 

 * Goodwill's New System of Shoeing, edit, second, pajre o3. 



