SOLE PROTECTION. 549 



cause he imagined that it descended towards the shoe to 

 a serious degree. The weight of the shoe was of little 

 importance. ' The inconvenience to a horse of an ounce 

 or so of increased weight in each shoe is not worth a mo- 

 ment's consideration, compared with the discomfort to 

 him of travelling upon a hard road with a bent shoe on 

 his foot, straining the nails, and maki)ig unequal and pain- 

 ful pressure ; the other evil arising out of light shoes is a 

 deficiency of width in the web, ichich robs the foot of much 

 valuable protection^ and leaves the sole and frog exposed to 

 numberless injuries., that a icider iveb would effectuallij 

 prevent^ For his own horses, he took ' special care that 

 the same width of web is continued throughout the whole 

 shoe back to the heels, giving increased covering and pro- 

 tection to the sole of the foot' He points out readily 

 enough, the great danger there is in a horse injuring his 

 foot and dropping suddenly lame on putting it upon a 

 stone, and speaks of it as unphilosophical in not covering 

 nearly the whole of that surface with a very wide-webbed 

 shoe. 



After this mutilation of the sole, it is asserted that the 

 situation of the nails determines the form of the foot. 

 The shoe was the ordinary seated one of Osmer and 

 Moorcroft, bent up at the toe in the form of a worn 

 shoe, or on Goodwin's principle ; it was to be of the same 

 thickness from one extremity to the other, and to have a 

 good flat even space all round for the crust to bear upon, 

 ' for it must be remembered the crust sustains the whole 

 weight of the horse.' The ground surface was to be 

 fullered for the reception of the nails, which were to be 

 as few as possible — five or six : three or four on the out- 



