STRONG HOOFS. 655 



amount of adhesion, and consequent loss of speed and 

 power, as well as diminution of stability. 



For the reasons before given, the frog should remain 

 untouched by the knife, unless it be to remove some 

 flakes which are all but detached ; though this should 

 always be done under supervision, as the drawing-knife 

 has no conscience. It is scarcely necessary to say that 

 the barbarous and destructive operation of opening the 

 heels should be sternly reprobated. The ' commissures' 

 of the bars and frogs may be scraped out by some blunt 

 instrument, merely to free them from soil or gravel that 

 may have lodged at the bottom. 



This is all the preparation any kind of foot usually 

 requires for the shoe, and may be summed up in a few 

 words : levelling the crust in conformity with the direction 

 of the limb and foot, and removing as much of its margin 

 as will restore it to its normal length, rounding its outer 

 edge at the same time ; and leaving the sole, frog, bars, 

 and heels in all their natural integrity. Such is the treat- 

 ment of the hoofs of the horses under my care ; and so 

 strong are they — such massive solid blocks of horn do 

 they appear, that should a shoe by some rare chance be 

 lost on a journey, there is no danger whatever in march- 

 ing a horse for ten, twenty, or even thirty miles without 

 another. Horses are never pricked in nailing, and foot- 

 diseases are. I may say, scarcely known. Nearly every 

 hoof is a model, and as perfect as before the animal was 

 first shod. 



With hoofs of this description, the kind of shoe em- 

 ployed is of secondary importance. I need not say that 

 the armature needed to protect the crust and maintain 



