52 ADVICE TO B U Y E n S 



it is naturally, so that it is difficult to nail a shoe on se- 

 curely without wounding or pricking the foot, as it is termed. 

 This defect, therefore, is of a serious nature, and constitutes 

 a class of unsoundness. In examining the fore-feet, we 

 should attentively observe whether there are any corns. 

 We can sometimes discover this without taking off the shoes, 

 but by no means so well as when they are removed. If the 

 corns are slight, they do not form a sufficient objection to 

 an otherwise good horse; but if they are extensive, and 

 particularly if the heels are likewise w^eak, the horse should 

 be rejected. 



Sand-crack is an important defect, when it runs longitu- 

 dinally from the coronet into the hoof, and is so deep as to 

 affect the sensible parts of the foot; sometimes, however, it 

 is very superficial, or in a horizontal direction, and perhaps 

 too trifling to deserve notice. It should be recollected, 

 however, that these trifling cracks in the hoof indicate an 

 unnatural dryness of the horn, and, consequently a tenden- 

 cy to sand-crack ; therefore, when such a horse is pur- 

 chased, projjer means should be employed to improve the 

 state of the hoof. 



There is no part of the horse which requires a more care- 

 ful inspection than the foot; for it sometimes happens that 

 lameness is for a time removed by rest, or a run at grass, 

 and may not again appear until the horse is put to work. 

 Horses that are foundered, are generally much relieved, 

 and sometimes apparently cured, by running at grass; but 

 the lameness invariably returns when the horse is worked, 

 or kept in a stable floored with planks, or bricked. 



A horse's foot may have suffered so far by bad shoeing, 

 improper management, or some unknown cause, that al- 

 though lameness may not have taken place at the time of 

 purchase, yet, from the appearance of the foot, it may 



