HORSE-SHOEING. 167 



The reason for this diminution in weight, while it is coincident 

 with increase in bulk, is to be found iu the fact that the muscles 

 principally concerned in moving the limb— swinging, straighten- 

 ing, and bending it backward and forward — are all situated 

 above the knee or hock. The moving power is at one end of a 

 •comparatively long lever with two arms, while the weight to be 

 moved is at the other extremity. The arm of the lever to which 

 the power is applied is very short, so that though rapidity is 

 gained, more power is lost, and it is palpable that every ad- 

 ditional ounce added to the foot must be nearly, if not more than 

 •eepial to a pound at the shoulder. 



In shoeing, this important consideration has been strangely 

 overlooked; and yet we cannot forget that it has a great in- 

 fluence on the wear of, not only the shoe, but also the muscles, 

 tendons, ligaments and joints, and even, indirectly, of the 

 entire animal. " If, at the termination of a day's work," says 

 an eminent French veterinary professor, " we calculate the 

 weight represented by the mass of iron in the heavy shoes a 

 horse is condemned to carry at each step, we shall arrive 

 at a formidable array of figures, and in this way be able to 

 estimate the amount of force uselessly expended by the ani- 

 mal in raising the shoes that overload his feet. The calcu- 

 lation I have made possesses an eloquence that dispenses 

 with very long commentaries. Suppose that the weight of a shoe 

 is two pounds, it is not excessive to admit that a horse trots at 

 the rate of one step every second, or sixty steps a minute. In a 

 minute, then, the limb of a horse whose foot carries two pounds 

 makes efforts sufficient to raise a weight of one hundred and 

 twenty pounds. For the four limbs, this weight in a minute is 

 represented by 120x1=480 pounds ; for the four feet during an 

 hour, the weight is 28,800 pounds ; and for four hours, the mean 

 duration of a day's work in the French omnibuses, the total 



