76 



RELATIVE SENSIBILITY OF THE EQUINE FOOT. 



For myself I am convinced that the foot of the unshod horse, 

 whether wild or subjugated, and traversing the natural surface 

 of the'earth, possesses endowments of special sensibility but lit- 

 tle inferior, if any, to those of the palmar extremities of the 

 ' lord of creation ' himself. The foot of the shod horse sub- 

 ject to be " cribbed, cabined and confined " in his natural 

 movements, treading only on artificially-formed surfaces, his 

 whole nature but ill-understood by his custodians, and the prop- 

 er management of his feet in his civilized condition compre- 

 hended still less, I regard as vastly inferior in special sensibility 

 to that of the horse which exists under more primitive con- 

 ditions. 



CAUSES OF IMPAIRED ACTION. 



We will now allude to some of the pathological conditions, 

 with which the nerves of the foot have an important and obvi- 

 ous connection. I hold that but a slight degree of abnormal 

 pressure upon the nerves of the foot, whether exerted from 

 within or without, will produce some, it may be but a slight de- 

 gree of pain, involving necessarily a corresponding degree, or 

 amount, of impaired action in the limb of the foot affected, 

 which must affect, more or less detrimentally the entire system. 



As is the amount of pressure, so will be the degree of pain, 

 and the extent of lameness, whether it be slight or severe, in 

 one foot or in more. 



It but too frequently happens that the pressure is so slight 

 and so evenly experienced by the two fore feet, and the increase 

 of pressure so gradual and insiduous, that its effects are not dis- 

 cernable by those who are supposed to appreciate and to min- 

 ister to all the animals physical necessities ; until he becomes ■ 

 either an obvious cripple in both feet, or evinces a greater 

 degree of lameness in one foot than the other. 



