DISADVANTAGES OF SHOEING. 279 



{2) The hoof grows continuously. When shod, however, 

 wear ceases — save, perhaps, in the posterior sections, where, in 

 consequence of elasticity, a slight loss occurs — and the hoof 

 becomes too long and too high. This alters the relation of the 

 hoof to the limb, impedes movement, tires the animal, favours 

 stumbling and falling, and may even produce disease of joints 

 and tendons. 



(3) Shoeing removes the hoof from direct contact with the 

 ground and, therefore, from the moisture it would otherwise 

 receive. The horny capsule becomes dry, hard, and unyield- 

 ing, it tends to contract and to press on the contained soft 

 structures, thus cramping action and even producing lameness. 



(4) The nail tracks weaken the hoof, and accidents, leading 

 to serious results, may follow the carelessness or want of skill 

 in workmen. 



All these results occur earlier and in more pronounced form 

 in fore-feet, because these bear a greater proportion of weight 

 and are more exposed to the drying process. Such changes do 

 not appear, however, with like rapidity nor to a similar extent 

 in all hoofs. Experience shows that when animals are severely 

 worked the limbs often suffer far more tlian the hoofs in conse- 

 quence of shoeing. The dogma that of 100 lame horses 90 are 

 lame in the feet is unsupported by statistics. Between the 

 years 1879 and 1891 the Veterinary School in Dresden received 

 10,727 lame horses. Of these oooo, that is 31-07 per cent., 

 were lame in the feet, but as lame horses sometimes make more 

 than one visit the percentage may be even lower. In the 

 Practical School of Farriery at Dresden in 1884 the number of 

 well-marked diseased feet noted was 6"53 per cent. ; the per- 

 centage of horses lame in the feet was even lower. The 

 statistics of the Military School of Farriery in Berlin show 

 that between 1877 and 1880 the percentage was 40*06. In 

 London, though no precise statistics are available, the 

 number of horses lame in the feet is probably not higher than 

 30 to 40 per cent. The diminution in cases of foot lameness 

 has been very marked since the introduction of wood paving 

 and machine-made nails. Speaking generally, the feet which 

 most often become diseased are those attached to limbs of 

 irregular conformation, lameness being due not so inuch to 

 shoeing: as to irrej^ular distribution of weight. 



