HORSE-SHOEING. ^g 



in, or the development of, the secreting apparatus 3 and in this respect 

 the operations of the farrier, as we will notice hereafter, are not with- 

 out much influence. 



It may be laid down as a rule that the horn grows more rapidly in 

 warm, dry climates than in cold, wet ones; in healthy, energetic ani- 

 mals than in those which are soft and weakly ; during exercise than in 

 repose; in young than in old animals. Food, labor and shoeing also 

 add their influence; while the seasons are to some extent concerned in 

 the growth and shape of the hoof. In winter it widens, becomes 

 softer and grows but little; in summer it is condensed, becomes more 

 rigid, concave and resisting, is exposed to severer wear and grows more 

 rapidly. This variation is a provision of nature to enable the hoof to 

 adapt itself to the altered conditions it has to meet : hard horn fco hard 

 ground, soft horn to soft ground. 



In this way we can account for the influence of locality upon the 

 shape of the foot, On hard, dry ground, the hoof is dense, tenacious 

 and small, with concave sole, and a little but firm frog; in marshy- 

 regions, it is large and spreading, the horn soft and easily destroyed 

 by wear, the sole thin and flat, and the frog an immense spongy mass, 

 which is badly fitted to receive pressure from slightly hardened soil. 

 In a dry climate, we have an animal small, compact, wiry and vigorous, 

 travelling on a surface which demands a tenacious hoof, and not one 

 adapted to prevent sinking; in the marshy region we have a large* 

 heavy, lymphatic creature, one of whose primary requirements is a foot 

 designed to travel on a soft, yielding surface. Change the respective 

 situations of these two horses, and Nature immediately begins to trans- 

 form them and their feet. The light, excitable, vigorous horse, with 

 its small vertical hoofs and concave soles, so admirably disposed to 

 traverse rocky and slippery surfaces, is physically incompetent to exist 

 on low-lying swamps; while the unwieldy animal, slow-paced and 



