ERRONEOUS THEORIES. 643 



hasten the ruin of the animal — and sooner or later, de- 

 pending on circumstances, we have either acute or chronic 

 navicular disease, acute or chronic laminitis, or a host 

 of other maladies of a more or less serious character. 

 I am of course always speaking of the anterior extrem- 

 ities. 



This evil of paring and rasping must be looked upon 

 as the greatest and most destructive of all that pertains 

 to shoeing, or even to our management of the horse. 

 Nine-tenths of the workmen who resort to this practice 

 cannot explain its object, and those who have written 

 books in defence of it, say it is to allow the descent of 

 the sole and facilitate the lateral expansion of the hoof. 



Fancy our gardeners cutting and rasping the bark off 

 our fruit-trees to assist them in their natural functions, 

 and to improve their appearance ! And yet the bark is 

 of no more vital importance to the tree than the horn of 

 the sole, wall, and frog is to the horse's foot. 



Bracy Clark has admirably delineated the changes 

 the hoof undergoes in a short course of modern shoe- 

 ing; though, always haunted by the expansion phan- 

 tom, he wrongly attributed this alteration to the nails 

 confining the lateral movements of the heels. The same 

 transformation from health to disease can be noted in the 

 feet of young horses whose soles are pared and hoofs 

 embellished at some forge where shoeing is practised on 

 ' improved principles.' 



Not only is this unscientific practice injurious to the 



hoof and its contents, but it indirectly reacts upon the 



whole limb. If the foot suffers, this must share to a 



greater or less extent. We have but to cast our eyes on 



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