19 



much valuable protection, and leaves tlie sole and frog 

 exposed to numberless injuries, tliat a wider web would 

 effectually prevent. 



For my own horses I not only have the web made wider, 

 than is usually met with, but I take especial care, that the 

 same width of web is continued throughout the whole shoe 

 back to the heels, giving increased covering and protection 

 to the sole of the foot. The common practice is to get it 

 nan'ower and narrower, untU it dwindles at the heels into 

 about half the width of the toe'"" ; and the only reason, 

 assigned for this injurious practice, is " liking to see the 

 shoe well set off at the heels."t 



I know, that I have a very prevalent and deep-rooted 

 prejudice to contend with in this matter ; still I do not 

 despair of convincing some at least of my readers, that it 

 is both unphilosophical and detrimental ; it imposes upon the 

 understanding by deceiving the eye, and is in the last degree 

 hurtful to the horse's foot. Wlien a shoe is thus set off 

 at the heels, it imparts to the foot an appearance of greater 

 width, than it really possesses ; but, if the shoe happened 

 to be made of glass, or some other transparent substance, 

 the deception would be at once detected, for then the outer 

 edge of the foot would be seen to rest on the inner edge 

 only of the shoe,;]: and the whole of the remaining width 

 of the web would be seen projecting beyond the hoof, forming 

 a convenient clip for displacing the shoe, but utterly useless, 

 as affording support to any part of the foot itself. A common 

 observer, on taking up a foot with a shoe so fitted, looks 

 * Plate 7, fig. 1. t Plate 4, fig. 1. J Plate 4, fig. 2. 



