THE HORSE'S FOOT: SHOEING, ETC. in 



bars (Plate XL, No. 5 L). Hunters are great sufferers from this 

 class of injury, owing to their being shod with short-heeled shoes. 

 Corns are very common, and as they are looked upon as unsound- 

 ness, in all cases of examination the shoes should be removed, and 

 the feet carefully searched. When they cause lameness, the shoe 

 should be removed, and the parts dressed out ; particularly if the 

 bar is too strong, and doubled over, and pressing on the sole, for it 

 must then be pared away, so as to remove all pressure from the 

 part. At times matter is also formed which must be liberated. In 

 bad cases poultices have to be applied to reduce the inflammation, 

 and a three-quarter or bar shoe (Plate XV., Nos. 5 and 7) is found 

 to be necessary ; while the indiarubber bar pad is also of great 

 service. If neglected, the inflammation extends to the internal parts 

 of the foot, when pus or matter forms, and finds its way out at the 

 top of the hoof, causing much pain and suffering to the animal, and 

 perhaps ending in quittor. 



191. Quittor is a fistulous disease of the foot, of a most painful 

 and troublesome nature. Injuries of any description to the foot 

 may end in quittor. It is not often seen in the country, but in towns 

 it is very common. Railway horses are very subject to it, owing to 

 getting their feet fixed in the rails and waggons or carts passing 

 over them. The structure of the foot becomes so much implicated 

 that the bone and cartilage become diseased, when holes, or sinuses, 

 are formed at the quarter and round the band of the hoof. At first 

 cold water poultices may be of some service in reducing the active 

 inflammation, but when the disease has become chronic, blisters, 

 caustic dressings, and the hot iron have to be applied ; while, as a 

 last resource, an operation has to be performed by which the 

 diseased bone and cartilage are removed, making the complicated 

 sores into one simple wound. These cases are much too formidable 

 for the attempts of an amateur. 



192. Side-Bones consist of the ossification of one or both of the 

 lateral cartilages, which are situated at the sides and top of the hoof. 

 (Plate VII., Nos. 7 and 8.) They are met with in the fore- 

 feet, particularly in those cart-horses which have strong, upright 



