CHAPTER YIII 

 The Care of the Feet 



It is necessary to pay great attention to the feet 

 and legs of a horse, as there is no truer saying 

 than " No foot, no horse." Blacksmiths are not 

 always infallible, and it is advisable to know what 

 ought and ought not to be done when one's animal 

 pays its periodical visits to the smithy. The first 

 essential is to preserve the foot in a sound and 

 healthy state, and if this is done, almost any kind 

 of shoe will be found to answer fairly Avell. 



The foot consists of an outer wall or crust ; the 

 bars, which are a reduplication inward of the crust 

 at the heels ; the sole, which is the flat or rather 

 concave surface ; and the frog, an elastic pad 

 placed on the back of the foot. The crust is the 

 equivalent of our finger nail, and consists of a 

 number of fibres running longitudinally from the 

 coronet. This crust should never be rasped. To 

 give a neater appearance to the shoe and to make 

 the hoof fit it, the average blacksmith generally 

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