THE HOESE'S foot 'VEILED IX OBSCURITY.' 139 



to alarm even ^Ir. Greg, will assist in throwing light 

 on a subject noiv confessedly veiled in obscurity, 

 viz. the horse's foot ; and, in these days of reduc- 

 tion, reducing our bills, and checking the deteriora- 

 tion of horses.^ 



If it were only for the invitation thus given by 

 ' Impecuniosus,' how could the writer, knowing what 

 he knows by experience, refrain from standing up 

 for the ' rights of an animal ' ? And such an animal 

 — not a wild beast, but one ' that was created to be 

 the friend and companion of man,' if we are to believe 

 ' Lavengro ; ' whilst another writer has said that 

 * had not custom dignified the lion with the title of 

 " king of beasts," reason could nowhere confer that 

 honour more deservedly than on the hoese.' Virgil 

 describes him as having a hoof ' that turns up the 

 ground, and sounds deep with solid horn.' To be 

 sure Virgil had not seen or heard of horseshoes, or 

 he would perhaps have sung of the clatter of iron. 

 Brittle hoof will not sound deep, like solid horn, 

 but more like a cracked saucer, or a ' shuflfy ' brick — 

 it is flawed all over. 



It is all very well for some people to say that 

 they do let the frog and bars alone, and thus comply 

 with everything. They do not comply with more 

 than a fraction. The thickness of a shoe, without 

 calks, is not less than three-eighths of an inch. 

 Hence the frog, to be of any use at all (and it can 

 only be of partial use in an iron-bound foot), must 

 make an abnormal growth to this extent ; and 

 abnormal growths are always weak. That it will 



