484 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



been wisely devoted to the importance of allowing the 

 posterior parts of the foot to rest on the ground without 

 the intervention of the shoe. 'It is useful and even 

 necessary to put short shoes on all flat feet, particularly 

 on those which have the form of an oyster-shell. Every 

 flat foot has low heels ; but nature, to remedy this defect, 

 bestows a large frog to preserve these parts. We ought 

 not, then, to pare the soles, much less cut them out to- 

 wards the heels ; neither should the hoofs be too much 

 rasped ; all these practices are so many abuses which bring 

 about the destruction of the horses' feet. The first abuse 

 — hollowing out the heels, is to destroy the horn which 

 forms the bars and prevents the heels and quarters from 

 contracting; the second abuse — rasping the foot, is to 

 destroy the strength of the hoof, and consequently to 

 cause its horn to become dry and the horny laminae be- 

 neath to grow weak ; from this often arises an internal 

 inflammation, which renders the foot painful and makes 

 the horse go lame.' 



It ought to be always remembered, that the more a 

 horse's foot is pared, so the more do we expose it to 

 accidents ; it is depriving it, in the first place, of a defence 

 that nature has given it against the hard and pointed sub- 

 stances it encounters ; and, in the second place, and which 

 is of the utmost advantage for both horse and rider, in 

 not paring the sole, and only using as much of a shoe as 

 is necessary to protect the horn, the animal will be no 

 longer liable to slip on bad roads in winter or summer, 

 when they are vulgarly called pIombe\ as will be shown. 



' I. Causing a horse to walk on the frog and partly 

 on the heel, the former is found to be rasped by the 



