RASPING THE HOOFS. 6^2, 



should a shoe chance to come off on the road, an acci- 

 dent, as we may infer, extremely likely to happen, great 

 damage will be done to the pared sole and the thin, brittle, 

 split-up crust, and in all probability the animal will be 

 lamed. The morbid desire to make fine work of shoeing 

 when the horse first began to be shod, ends in the greatest 

 amount of skill and labour being required to continue 

 it, and keep the animal fit for service, though with 

 deformed feet, seriously damaged horn, and perhaps 

 great sufiTering. When the coachman or groom's fancy 

 compels the farrier to carry his rasp to the top of the 

 hoof, and make that organ far better fitted for exhibition 

 on a sportsman's table than to meet the rude contact of 

 the ground, or withstand the influences of weather and 

 frequent shoeings, then the injury is greatly increased. 



The so-called ' coronary frog-band,' or cuticular pro- 

 longation that extends in a wide, whitish-coloured band 

 around the upper part of the hoof, and which is often so 

 scrupulously destroyed in shoeing, is intended by nature 

 to protect the fibres of the wall from the efi:ects of heat 

 and dryness while they are being secreted or so immature 

 as to be incapable of resisting these influences ; for it will 

 be remembered that the wall is formed at the coronet, 

 and this covering guarantees not only the integrity of the 

 newly-made horn-tubes, but also maintains the secreting 

 vessels that enter them in a healthy condition, and com- 

 petent to supply fresh material for wear. Its destruction 

 induces ' sandcrack,' and other morbid conditions of the 

 crust. 



After the clenches have been evenly laid down on the 



wall of the hoof, no more should be done, unless it be to 



43 



