THE FOOT IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 103 



Growth mainly takes place at the toe, and if the toes 

 are too long the animal is apt to stumble through this 

 cause. The foot growing at the toe carries the shoe with 

 it, and the result is that the distribution of pressure on 

 the wall becomes unbalanced. Foals and colts when out 

 at pasture should have their feet periodically inspected, 

 and the farrier should be instructed to do whatever is 

 necessary. Unequal distribution of pressure is not only 

 bad for the feet but for other structures in connection 

 with the limbs, such as the ligaments and tendons, etc. 



It is quite an easy matter to grade the feet into three 

 categories, viz. good, bad, and indifferent. A good foot 

 should be of a bluish colour, free from cracks or fissures 

 in the wall, and the latter ought to slope at an angle of 

 from forty-five to fifty degrees, being concave on the sole, 

 well open at the heels, and having a well-developed foot- 

 pad, along with prominent bars. The wall at the heels 

 should be of medium height, and there must be no signs 

 of brittleness of the wall or any indication of separation 

 betv/een the wall and the sole, such constituting a brief 

 description of what a good foot should be Apart from 

 its structural features, it must be proportionate to the 

 size of the animal, and during its movement it must be 

 carried in a straight line with the body, and not in an 

 inward or outward direction. This, however, is a matter 

 more intimately concerned with action rather than that 

 appertaining to the foot. 



Feet belonging to the second category, viz. bad, 

 comprise all those in which the wall shows some structural 

 defect, such as sand-crack, false quarter, contracted heels, 

 low heels, flat or drop sole, pumiced foot, in which the 

 foot becomes more or less flattened, as commonly hap- 

 pens after one or more attacks of founder. All brittle 

 feet must be classified as distinctly bad, likewise feet in 

 which there is any tendency towards separation of the 

 sole and the wall. The last-named is a most serious defect, 

 and it is one that is commonty concealed either by filling 



