160 THE FROG 



those horses whose feet have become contracted are 

 more liable to corns, and perhaps the rather that they 

 require greater care in shoeing, and thus the complaint 

 and its cause act and react upon each other. So 

 common are corns in horses, owinor to the ignorance 

 of farriers and that of horse-owners as a rule, that I 

 may venture to assert that if the feet of the first twenty 

 horses met with at any time in the streets of London 

 or any large town were inspected, at least half of them 

 would be found to be suffering more or less from them. 

 Cart-horses must suffer very much from corns, inas- 

 much as their feet are as a rule very insufficiently 

 cared for, and their shoes everything they should not 

 be. If poor horses could but speak, how bitterly ,they 

 would curse the man who, instead of being their true 

 friend, is their greatest foe — I mean the farrier ! 



If the sole of the foot of a horse is inspected, it will 

 be observed that there is a V-shaped growth of horn, 

 which extends from the heels to some three parts of 

 the distance between them and the toe. This is 

 termed the frog. Of course, it is placed in the foot of 

 a horse for some wise purpose, and this is evidently 

 to prevent the horse from slipping. Nor could any- 

 thing be more admirably designed for the fulfilment of 

 this duty. It also is doubtless intended to sustain 

 some portion of the weight of the animal in the unshod 

 foot. Since such is the case, it behoves us to preserve 

 it healthy. This it cannot be if it is to be unduly 

 pared away by the farrier. To be healthy it must be 

 used, and the more it is so, the truer and more rapid 

 will be the growth of the horn of which it is composed. 

 In shoeing, therefore, the frog should not be cut down 

 too much, but any ragged portions which there may 



