308 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



CHAP. LIV. 



ON SHOEING AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THE FEET. 



So much has been said of late on the subject of shoeing, and so 

 many imaginary improvements have been introduced since we 

 have had a free intercourse with the Continent, that an inex- 

 perienced person is naturally enough led to imagine that it is a 

 very intricate art, and one that requires a great deal of study 

 and reflection to be understood. But notwithstanding the great 

 attention that has been paid to the sulyect during the last thirty 

 years, it is rather questionable whether lameness has become 

 much less frequent, or whether many real improvements have 

 been made since the time of the late Lord Pembroke, who pub- 

 lished some observations on shoeing, the utility of which has 

 been confirmed by nearly fifty years' practice of the method he 

 recommended in the regiment of cavalry which he commanded, — 

 the First, or Royal Dragoons. The French shoe is held up by 

 some as the standard of perfection, while others think that the 

 hinged shoe of Mr. Bracy Clark is indispensably necessary to 

 the preservation of the foot, and capable also of restoring it, in 

 a certain degree, when injured by other modes of shoeing ; for 

 he considers all shoes, except that which admits of some motion 

 in the hoof, by means of a hinge at the toe, to be injurious to 

 the feet, gradually, and sometimes very slowly, bringing on a 

 contraction of the hoof, and the diseases which result from such 

 contraction. If we consider the horse as he stands at rest, we 

 observe that the feet are the basis of the whole body, and that 

 it is desirable that the whole of the lower circumference of the 

 feet should have a bearing upon the ground. 



Bourgelat, in his Essay on Shoeing, lays it down as a 

 fundamental law that the shoe should be fitted to the hoof, 



lateral and inferior cartilages and posterior part of the frog. The remainder 

 being the principal portion is transferred to the navicular and coffin bones, the 

 former of which, by the interposition of the flexor tendon, bears partly on the 

 frog and partly on the sole; and the latter, by the intervention of the lamina^, 

 distributes its weight to the crust throughout its whole circumference, and a 

 very slight portion of it is borne by the sole which may or may not bear upon 

 the ground. Thus, at the same moment, these various actions go on in the 

 foot. The coffin bone descends lower into the hoof, the lamina?, by their 

 elastic connections, permitting it, and the sensible sole is compressed, and 

 perhaps the horny sole opposite the coffin bone descends. AV^ell, the horny 

 sole and the anterior part of the frog opposite the navicular bone descends 

 and expands the quarters parallel to them, whilst at the same time the elastic 

 or sensible frog being compressed, is forced down upon the horny frog and 

 contributes to the expansion of the heels ; but if the horny frog meets the 

 ground, the cushion being pressed upon both above and below, enlarges late- 

 rally and expands the upper part of the foot and lateral cartilages." — Ed.] 



