AND ON SHOEING. 297 



generally produces diseased frogs. This may be ob- 

 viated by making the bar part of the shoe unreasonably 

 wide ; which, however, is rather objectionable for 

 pleasure horses — as racers, hunters, and hacks. Yet 

 these bar shoes, properly made, are very useful for 

 draught horses, and indeed for any horses whose feet 

 may be so diseased as not to go sound without them. 



From the manner in which cart horses working in 

 London and in many of our provincial mercantile 

 towns are shod, the frogs of their feet are seldom or 

 ever in contact with the ground, in consequence of the 

 very high caulkings of their shoes, which are necessary 

 to prevent their slipping when exerting themselves in 

 the drawing of heavy loads. 



Now it is horses of the above description that are, 

 perhaps, more subject to that obstinate disease " can- 

 ker," than many of our pleasure horses are ; the cause 

 of which, I am of opinion, is the want of pressure on 

 the frog. Be this as it may ; whether draught horses' 

 feet become affected with the disease just mentioned 

 from the want of pressure, or whether it proceeds from 

 a want of proper attention being paid to their feet in 

 the stables, or from their feet not being properly 

 cleaned out at the smith's shop prior to their being 

 shod, — or, whether it results from a running thrush 

 having been long neglected, or from the discharge pro- 

 ceeding from the grease penetrating through the clefts 

 of the frog, and thereby occasioning the disease, — or 

 whether a horse becomes affected with it from any 

 hereditary cause, as that of being bred fiom either a 



