42 THE horse's foot, 



to seek relief from the new pain by a change of position, 

 which again calls forth the old one, — and thus the poor beast 

 is doomed to a perpetual alternation of painful sensations. His 

 courage enables him to bear a great deal of pain without 

 flinching, particularly when it increases upon him in the 

 stealthy manner that usually marks the course of unsound- 

 ness in the feet. There is, however, a point beyond which 

 his endurance cannot be stretched, and the progressive na- 

 ture of unsoundness is sure in the end to find it out ; and 

 although he may contrive, by shortening his step and striking 

 the ground less forcibly with his feet, to put off the discovery, 

 and may continue to work upon very unsound feet even for 

 years, still he is at last compelled to yield. Sinking his 

 head and neck at every step, to remove their weight from 

 the foot at the moment it meets the ground, he declares by 

 signs no longer to be mistaken that he is decidedly lame ; 

 and this, in all probability, is the first intimation which the 

 master receives of any thing being amiss with his horse's 

 foot. He then, in his innocent astonishment, begins recalling 

 to mind the events of the last few days, vainly hoping to find 

 in them the cause of this unlooked-for calamity. 



Few circumstances appear to arouse a horse-master's in- 

 dignation so much as an imputation upon the soundness of 

 his horse's feet ; but surely this extreme sensitiveness is not 

 very philosophical, where the tendency of the whole treat- 

 ment of the animal is to make them unsound. It would be 

 more rational to admit the unsoundness, and adopt measures 

 for removing it, than to deny its existence, and persevere in 

 the treatment that caused it. 



A horse in work with perfectly sound feet is of much rarer 

 occurrence than is generally supposed ; but, fortunately, per- 

 fect soundness of foot is not absolutely essential even to the 

 performance of a vast deal of work, in what is called very 

 good style, as is proved by the feet of a great majority of the 

 horses that perform wonderful tasks to the entire satisfaction 

 of their masters : it is nevertheless a very desirable attribute, 

 and will amply repay any trouble that we may take to ensure 

 it, not only in the extent to which it prolongs the horse's 

 usefulness, but also in the free, willing, and agreeable manner 

 in which his work is done, — carrying conviction on the face 

 of it that it is unaccompanied by pain. 



The influence of regular daily exercise upon the health and 

 well-being of the horse is generally much too lightly es- 

 teemed both by masters and grooms, — who seem for the most 



