54 THE HORSE. 



ble; but there is, now and then, a most perilous defect 

 in them between the shoe and sole, namely, when the 

 horse is so formed in his hinder quarters, that he 

 overreaches, and wounds his fore heels with the toes 

 of his hind feet. This, in the slang of the ancient 

 stable, is styled going " hammer and pinchers to- 

 gether." The running thrush, a defluxion from 

 the cleft of the frog, is a constitutional and sometimes 

 an hereditary malady; and when it seems to arise from 

 neglect or improper treatment of the feet, those are 

 merely the exciting causes, and would not probably 

 have induced such a disease in a naturally sound foot. 

 Corns, arising, as in the human feet, from pressure, 

 are generally confined to the fore feet, which endure 

 most labour. Their site is in the heel, just above the 

 bars and often in the sole near the crust, from the shoe 

 being ill placed, or afterwards bending down upon the 

 sole, or from the intrusion of gravel or small stones. 

 They are sometimes found in the heels or feet of unshod 

 colts, probably from an irregularity of tread, and un- 

 due pressure on a particular part. Sandc racks are 

 clefts or slits in the fore hoofs generally, either from 

 before the coronet downwards, or laterally in the di- 

 rection of the fibres, which last is most easily remedied. 

 Should the sandcrack be neglected and the horse 

 continued in work, the probable consequence would 

 be, an entire disunion of the parts, the cleft of the 

 hoof remaining, which constitutes the irremediable 

 defect and weakness of a false quarter. Dryness 

 of the hoof, natural or incidental, or both, the usual 

 cause. The quittor, quittor bone, or horny quittor, 

 the Java rt of the French school, is a hard round lump 



