4^t The Compleat Horfeman : or. 



If the Foot Be circled, altho' it do not make a 

 Horfe to halt or mean his Foot, yet it is a fign that 

 the Hoof is altered, or the Horn nought ; therefore 

 other Circumftances muft be confidered } as firft, if 

 the Horn be thick, becaufe Horfes with a thin Horn 

 are faid to have fat Feet, and cannot be known but 

 by feeing the Foot pared. Such thin-hoof 'd Horfes 

 halt and mean their Feet a long time after they are 

 ihooed, before they recover ftrength in them, fo 

 that a Man is neceffitated to let them reft fome 

 days after they are fhod, before he can make ufe of 

 them. 



To know when Feet are fat, is one of the moft 

 difficult things in the Knowledge of Horfes, their 

 Jhape being as beautiful as that of any other Foot, 

 and the Horn maketh the beft appearance in the 

 World, only that the Hoof is fomewhat larger 

 than the fize of the Horfe will allow of. 



You are alfo to confider if the Horfe have not a 

 kind of Ciift in his Foot called a Falfe Quarter, which 

 isoccafion'd by the Horfe's calling his Quarter and 

 getting a new one \ for then the Horn beginning to 

 grow, is uneven and ugly, and bigger and fofter 

 than the reft of the Hoof. If the Clift be confider- 

 able, and take up a quarter part of the Hoof, it 

 fhould keep a Man from buying the Horfe, 



There are Horfes which have Over- reaches or 

 Calkin-treads upon the Coronet,, which become 

 hollow and grooved in curing, but then the hollow 

 of the tread defcends proportionably as the Hoof 

 grows, and is vifible upon it : It doth little or no 

 prejudice to the Horfe if there remain no fwelling 

 upon the Coronet. 



There are fome Gifts very dangerous •, for when 

 Farriers havefometimes fired the Coronet, and burnt 

 down a little upon the top of the Horn, iccaufes a 

 clift or groove along the Hoof, which renders it 

 ugly and hard as long as his Hoof lafts, and com- 

 monly 



