16 THE HOKSE. 



small or narrow at the heels, caused by being reared on 

 high, dry, or hard soil, be pronounced unsound? 



Nature has made the small foot as perfect as the larger 

 one. The inside, or sensitive foot, is not too large for 

 the horny case, nor has it with difficulty been squeezed 

 into the case; but the hard, horny case fits the inside with 

 perfect ease. Where contraction is the cause of lameness, 

 it usually arises from changing a natural state of living to 

 one that is artificial. The heat or dryness of the stable 

 is one of the principal causes of contraction, as it aggra- 

 vates the inflammation produced by work and by the 

 stimulating nature of the food. 



Reason, therefore, would suggest that the horse reared 

 in the softest and wettest ground, and having the largest- 

 sized foot, would be most likely to receive injury from 

 the change; and so it has proved in innumerable cases. 

 Great attention and care may keep such feet moderately 

 sound for a short time; but they become crippled almost 

 as soon as they are worked. Not so with the naturally 

 smaller but harder hoof, which has been accustomed to 

 something nearer to the stable dryness; it is not, there- 

 fore, from this cause, so soon inflamed. Horses with 

 small hard feet have less fatty membrane to carry, having 

 generally been reared on hard dry grounds. Food not be- 

 ing so plentiful in these situations as on the moist, soft, 

 and fertile plains, they have had to travel farther for it; 

 deriving much good from the exercise thereby induced, 

 and especially from the dry and bracing air of more hilly 

 regions. Horses whose hoofs are naturally small and 

 hard are, therefore, better prepared in every way for the 

 treatment they have to undergo in their apprenticeship 

 to work. They have less useless weight of their own to 

 carry; they are already accustomed to hard dry ground, 

 and to more violent exercise. Horses with small hoofs are 

 more moderate in their action: their feet are not subject 

 to violent inflammation. When inflammation does take 



