SHOEING. 



717 



have been entirely destroyed, and nothing is left to support the 

 nails holding on the shoe but the thin, soft fibres, as fragile almost 

 as the pith of a rush, and which were never intended by nature to 

 be exposed. Consequently they lose their moisture, wither, crack, 

 and break off, and frequently the shoe is lost, and with it a large 

 portion of the hoof 



" The same process goes on with the sole and frog. The young 

 horn, prematurely exposed, cannot resist 

 the effects of evaporation, and shrinks in 

 the same way. At each shoeing the 

 same routine is followed by the farrier, 

 and the horn is often so hard that arti- 

 ficial means must be adopted to soften it 

 in order to get oft' a sufficient quantity to 

 allow the sole to spring under the thumb. 

 " In this we cannot altogether blame 

 the farrier ; he is only carrying out the 

 ideas of men who have published books 

 on shoeing. Can we wonder that it soon 

 becomes necessary to adopt every means 

 to sujDply, artificially, that which has 

 been removed indiscreetl}' ? Heavy iron 

 shoes with plent}' of cover to defend the 

 morbidly sensitive horn of the soles which 

 may have been thinned till the blood was 

 oozing thi'ough, before these cumbrous 

 shields were applied. Words cannot describe the agony a horse 

 must experience when he chances to step on a sharp or even blunt 

 stone. And 3'et the writers who have counseled this mutilation of 

 the foot, have laid this tenderness — the limping gait, and falls with 

 broken knees — to the nails of the shoe preventing expansion. 

 Plates of leather covering the delicate frog and sole, and layers of 

 tar and tow are brought into requisition to compensate — though 

 such is not confessed — for the loss of the horn, but with very small 

 results. In a brief time the Avhole foot becomes dwarfed ; the frog- 

 deprived of its natural functions, like the muscles of a paralyzed 

 arm, becomes atrophied, diseased, and almost disappears, the sole 

 becomes still more concave and hard, and the foot to\vard the 

 heels narrower, as in Fig. 563. At the same time the unfortunate 

 creature begins to move as if it Avere in pain ; the flexor tendon on 

 its course over the navicular bone has lost its support, and 

 has, from the first shoeing, been acting at a very serious dis- 

 advantage. The mutilation of the hoof by removing the best 

 portion of the horn at the vcr}'- time it w as iiiost required, has 

 inflicted a serious injury upon it, and the bone over which it has to 

 play during its arduous task of flexing the foot and limb ; while the 

 heavy iron shoe and the increase of concussion it engenders on 

 artificial roads, all tend to hasten the ruin of the animal ; and, 

 sooner or late, depending on the circumstances, we have either 

 wcute or chi'onic navicular disease, acute or chronic juwinitis, or a 



Fig. 5G3.— Bad effect of 

 excessive paring. 



