HOW TO BUY AND SELL. 31 



LEATHEE SOLES. 



What has been said of bar shoes applies equally to 

 leather soles also; for, where it is necessary to use these to 

 enable the horse to perform his work safely or properly, 

 as he requires extra care, the horse is not sound, let the 

 cause be what it may. 



No one will dispute that leather soles are of great good, 

 enabling many a horse to work soundly that otherwise 

 would be in great pain. They are much safer than bar 

 shoes, where they answer the purpose, as the horse has a 

 better hold of the ground. They are also less likely to 

 produce thrushes or waste the frogs. For some feet, 

 gutta-percha is better adapted than leather, on account of 

 its being harder, and less yielding to sharp stones, partic- 

 ularly in wet weather. It is not so well, however, when 

 the sole is not to be covered, except in the case of corns. 



RING BONES. 



Eing bones are situate above the hoof, being an ossifi- 

 cation of the cartilages at the top of the coronet. If seen 

 only in front of the pastern, whence the disease generally 

 extends itself round the front of the hoof, in form of a 

 ring, it is frequently of little consequence; but where it 

 approaches the heels, the horse is fit for slow work only, 

 the flexibility of the cartilage by its altered structure be- 

 ing lost. The cartilage is likely to be fractured by the 

 ascent of the internal structure of the hoof on any ex- 

 treme pressure being given to the frogs, either from ac- 

 celerated speed or from treading on a stone. At slow 

 work horses with these hoofs often last for years without 

 accident, but when they do fracture the ossified part, they 

 should be at once destroyed, or turned out till the frac- 

 ture is united, in which case, though not sound, they 



