280 THE PRACTICE OF SHOEING. 



With regard to the injurious effects of shoeing it has justly 

 been said, " Shoeing is an evil ichen ill practised." 



14. Effects upon Hoofs and Limbs produced by Work 

 ON Paved, especially Stone-Paved, Streets. 



While draught is facilitated by the hard, smooth surface of 

 modern streets, concussion and slipping are increased, and are 

 productive of very serious effects in the feet and limbs of all 

 draught animals. The gain, therefore, of very smooth hard 

 pavements is somewhat less than would at first appear. 



So far as the preservation of the hoofs and joints is concerned 

 the most favourable ground is that which admits of the shoe 

 entering slightly, thus modifying the shocks incidental to rapid 

 movement and the slipping produced when the foot comes to 

 the ground, as well as restoring to the sole and frog the counter- 

 pressure necessary for healthy growth. A soft yielding surface, 

 in which the hoof sinks deeply, entails great exertion and 

 rapidly produces fatigue. Very hard ground, on the other 

 hand, causes shocks, slips, and falls in proportion to its rough- 

 ness and hardness. Granite setts and asphalt are the most 

 injurious of all pavements, because they absolutely prevent the 

 feet impressing them, because the horny sole and frog become 

 functionally inactive on account of the absence of counter- 

 pressure, and because the sensitive structures and joints are apt 

 to become bruised and inflamed, producing a peculiar shuffling 

 and unsymmetrical gait. 



While granite blocks are worse than macadam or gravel, the 

 evil becomes immensely exaggerated when the surface is much 

 curved. Streets thus paved present an ever increasing danger 

 for horses, a danger produced by the hardness and smoothness 

 of the surface and bv the faultv or diasjonal setting of the 



t/ I/O C7 



individual stones. Slips and falls are then frequent, as owners 

 in large towns know to their cost, but the disease processes 

 produced in the joints, by trotting heavy horses on granite 

 paved streets of excessive curvature, are less well recognised. 

 In consequence of the form of the roadway the horse, where- 

 ever he happen to be, almost always treads unequally, the 

 outer margin of the right hoof and the inner of the left 

 coming first in contact with the ground. This inequality of 



