38 OF SHOEING. 



and inconvenience to the horse in action ; 3rdly, loss 

 of speed from the resistance of the toe against the 

 ground ; 4thly, undue strain on the flexor tendons, 

 whose office is to flex and raise the leg. One of these 

 tendons in particular — viz., the flexor perforans 

 — is hable to injury from this increased and unna- 

 tural strain ; it suffers at its weakest point, that is, 

 where it makes its bend round the navicular bone, 

 prior to its insertion into the coffin bone, or bone of 

 the foot ; strain of this tendon caused by resistance 

 of the toe against the ground is a common cause of 

 navicular disease; this will be further considered 

 under the head of that disease. 5thly, undue stress 

 on the suspensory ligament ; on this ligament the 

 whole weight falls, when in action the foot is brought 

 to the ground ; straight toes, by interfering with the 

 fair and natural bearing of the foot on the ground, 

 have a tendency to cause an unnatural stress on it. 

 It is this ligament which suffers when in galloping 

 the foot is brought with sudden violence to the 

 ground, constituting the injury so well known in 

 race-horses as a " breakdown." 



Straight shoes have a tendency to produce these 

 evils, but they do not produce them to the full 

 extent, which we might expect, because nature, 

 so to say, takes the matter into her own hands, 

 and by friction with the ground, wears away a large 

 portion of the straight toe, and so, in part, diminishes 

 its injurious effects ; and again, because the animal 



