44 The Compleat Horfeman : or, 



know by the circumference of the Hoof, if the Heels 

 are low, after a very little experience. 



You fhall in the next place, keeping the Horfe's 

 Foot ftill up, conflder if the Sole be ftrong, and the 

 whole Foot hollow, and at a pretty diftance from 

 the Shoe, whereas fome Feet are fhaped like the 

 back-part of an Oyfter-fhell, and the Sole is higher 

 than the Hoof, fo that the whole Foot is quite fill'd 

 up on the lower-part, they are then called Crowned- 

 Sates ; and altho' fuch Feet have for the moft part 

 their Heels low, yet are they ftraitned and narrow 

 towards the Shoe, and become in a little time abfo- 

 lutely ufelefs, unlefs it be for the Plow. Not but 

 that by methodical Shooing, care and time, fuch 

 Crowned-Soles may in fome meafure be rectified, 

 if the Heels be only ftraitned near the Shoe, and 

 have not their Frufhes over large, and their Heels 

 too low : For thefe laffc there is no poflibility to re- 

 cover them. 



There are other kind of Feet which People call 

 Weahy becaufe altho' their Heels be indifferent high, 

 yet they are but thin, that is, that at the point of 

 theFrufh, betwixt it and the upper-part of the Hoof, 

 they have but a fmall thicknefs } and altho' they 

 have the inward part of the Foot, that is, the Sole 

 hollow, yet they have fo little ftrength in their 

 Feet that they calily halt, and are alfo fubjed to heat 

 their Feet upon hard ways, the pain whereof maketh 

 them lame. Thefe kind of Horfes are very often 

 upon their Litter, that is, People are obliged to let 

 them ftand foft, and give them but very moderate 

 Labour. 



Hoof-binding is known, when the Heels do not 

 take a right tour or compafs, but ftraiten towards 

 the clift of the Frufh, fo that upon each fide of the 

 faid clift, there rs not above a Finger-breadth of di- 

 ftance, and that the whole Heel is little more than, 

 two Fingers broad. Whereas a Horfe Ihould always 



have 



