The foot proper is an envelope in a mass of fibrous tis- 

 sues known as laminas, united to either structure and their 

 relation to each other is such that in the most minute manner 

 they fit as closely together as does the closely united leaves 

 of a book and yet delicate appearing as they are, their office 

 is such that the animal depends on the laminaes for carrying 

 weight. 



I have said that the new artificial roads are a blessing to 

 the horse because level and firm footing is to his benefit, if 

 we understand how to shoe to suit the new conditions. 

 And now, more than ever, a shoe becomes an instrument of 

 either good or ill. 



From the above cut, it will be seen that the foot of the 

 horse is well provided with elastic tissues to break concus- 

 sion and that we need not depend on the frog altogether 

 to take off the jar, aside from the yielding of the elasic tis- 

 sues in the foot. While a horse strikes the pavements each 

 joint from the foot to the shoulder is provided with elastic 

 buffers. Nature has made great plans for the horse's en- 

 durance, if man don't rob her of its good intention. 



I produce this to show that the horse's weight is not 

 carried by the bottom of the sole of the foot, but his weight 

 is supported by the sensitive and insensitive laminaes and 

 by them the animal depends on suspension. Those lami- 

 naes fit close together and are dove-tailed into each 

 other. They are connected with tissue to the footbone and 

 fit in to another mass of sockets of the horny hoof. One 

 can imagine how painful it is to a horse when a foot be- 

 comes contracted, the laminaes become inflamed, there is.-ti>: 

 room for expansion as they are between the footbone and 

 the horny hoof. They surround the entire foot and interior 

 hoof. At each rise and fall of the foot, those laminaes 

 ascend and descend and the sole, it is said, slightly yields. 

 If the laminaes become inflamed there is a stiffness in the 

 horse's way of traveling, similar to that of a founder, as a 

 founder is nothing else but an inflammation of the tissues 



63 



