272 Our Noblest Friend, The Horse 



makes the horn too soft, and the consequent wear 

 too rapid. Never touch the surface of the foot, more 

 than to run a rasp over the edges of the quarters and 

 toes to level the tread. No horn must be cut away 

 anywhere; ordinary usage will attend to all that. 

 Some horses wear the toes faster than the heels, and 

 vice versa ; others wear one quarter lower than the 

 other. 



No horse, if left barefoot, interferes, overreaches 

 (for long), " speedy cuts," has corns, thrush, or shoe 

 boils; he neither stumbles or slips on ice or snow; 

 he hurts but little if he kicks you ; he grows a foot 

 that is like a big lump of india-rubber, with its great 

 wedge-shaped frog and powerful quarters and bars. 

 No quarter cracks, seedy toe, quittor, etc., for him; 

 no shortened action, laminitis, navicular disease, etc. 



The same advantages accrue from the use of tips, 

 save that, as the wear at the toe is protected, the toe 

 must be shortened and lowered, and the tips reset 

 or renewed at least every month. Otherwise the 

 toe insidiously lengthens, the eye becomes accus- 

 tomed to ensuing false proportions, and the strain, 



