THE HORSE. 53 



presses the sensible sole upon the coffin bone, whence 

 that sole, endowed as it is with a high degree of sen- 

 sibility, is squeezed and jammed between two hard 

 bodies ; the occasion necessarily of great pain to the 

 horse, and a growing inflammation in the foot, which 

 soon renders him useless. Artificial causes have 

 been stated as productive of this effect, but of the 

 numbers of hoofs which I have examined, the defect 

 seemed to have been natural. Too small feet for the 

 size of the horse is a defect, although such feet may 

 be sound and good. But the most general defect in 

 the feet of our English road horses, originating, no 

 doubt, in the universal infusion of southern blood, is 

 the thin and weak hoof and tender crust ; the horn 

 not supplying a sufficient growth for repeated shoeing, 

 and the sole not having substance enough to defend 

 and support the internal and sensible parts of the foot. 

 A small, hard and dry coronet (not however the usual 

 defect of these last kinds, but of the deep ass-like 

 hoofs,) may be a cause of lameness and contraction, 

 by acting as too tight a bandage. 



The feet of saddle horses, be they ever so sound 

 and good in nature, detract greatly from the value of 

 the nag, unless they stand even upon the ground, the 

 toe pointing in a right line ; since if it deviate inward 

 or outward, the horse will either knock or cut in the 

 speed (old terms), that is to say, will strike and wound 

 the opposite pasterns, either with his toe or his heel ; 

 and if he bend his knees much, and is a high goer, 

 will cut the inside of the knee joint. Nature and the 

 nature of the case have been very favourable to the 

 hinder hoofs, with which we have seldom much trou- 



