100 HORSE-SHOEING. 



the loss of the strong, tough horn, whose presence is so necessary 

 to protect the lower margin of the hoof and afford support and 

 hold to the nails. 



In consequence of its removal, these having nothing to retain 

 them but the thin pellicle of soft horn remaining, and this being 

 so weak, and exposed to influences it was never intended to 

 encounter, quickly dries up, shrivels, becomes brittle, and cracks 

 or breaks away in flakes. Then we have a hoof deprived of its 

 horn, and in as unnatural a condition as can well be imagined •* 

 it has been so barbarously mutilated as to require the greatest 

 care next shoeing to place the nails in a shred of sound horn ; 

 the operation of rasping and curtailment being repeated each 

 time increases the evil, and should a shoe chance to come off on 

 the road — an accident, it may be inferred, extremely likely to 

 happen — great damage will be done to the pared sole, and the 

 thin, brittle, slit-up wall, and in all probability, after a few yards 

 traveling, the animal will be lamed. 



The morbid desire to make fine work of shoeing, when the 

 horse was first shod, ends in the greatest amount of skill and 

 labor being required to continue it, and keep the animal to some 

 extent fit for service, though with deformed feet, seriously 

 damaged horn, and perhaps great suffering. 



The truth of this can be verified by a casual glance at the 

 hoofs of almost every horse that passes us in town or country, 

 though perhaj)s it is most conspicuous in town-shod horses. 



One of the most serious results of this excessive mutilation 

 of the lower part of the wall is the production of a chronic 

 form of laminitis, marked by slight subsidence half-way down 

 the front of the foot, and to a less degree at the side, with an 

 abrupt, rounded protrusion of the [part that is always exposed 

 to rasping. 



This deformity, which causes pain and altered gait in the 



