539 



good purpose, robs the foot of a necessary protection which it is beyond 

 the power of art to imitate or rephice. 



WINTER SHOEING. 



The subject of winter shoeing presents, iu many sections of thecouu- 

 try, fresh difficulties, for now the shoe is required, iu the case of all 

 classes of horses, to discharge a double duty ; to afford foothold as well 

 as guard against uudue wear. Various patterns of shoes have from 

 time to time beeu invented to meet this dual requirement, but the com- 

 monest of all, fashioned with shoe and heel calks or calkins, is, laulty 

 though it be, probably, all things considered, the one which best suits 

 the requirements of the case. It should, however, never be lost sight 

 of that the shorter, the sharper, and the smaller the calkins are, 

 so long as they answer the inirpose which called them into existence, 

 so much the better for the foot that wears them. High calkins, while 

 they confer no firmer foothold, are potent means of inflicting injury 

 both on the foot itself and the superincumbent limb at large. It is only 

 from that portion of the catch which enters the ground surfiice that the 

 horse derives any benefit in the shape of foothold, and it must be ap- 

 parent to the meanest capacity that long calkins, which do not pene- 

 trate the hard, uneven ground, are so many levers put into the animal's 

 possession to enable if not compel him to wring his feet, rack his limbs, 

 and inflict untold tortures on himself. I have laid particular stress on 

 this subject, as I am of opinion that the presence of navicular disease, 

 a dire malady from which horses used for agricultural labor should 

 enjoy a practical immunity, is traceable largely to the habitual use, 

 during our long winter months, of needlessly large calkins, only frac- 

 tional parts of which find lodgment in the earth or ice during progres- 

 sion. I will explain what I mean. When a horse is shod with the exag- 

 gerated calkins to which I have alluded, the toe and heel calks are, or 

 ought to be, the same height, to start with, at all events. Very often, 

 however, they are not, and even when they are, the toe calk wears 

 down on animals used for draft purposes far more rapidly than its 

 fellows at the heel. The result is that the toe is depressed while the 

 heel in unnaturally raised. The relative position of the bony structures 

 within the foot is altered, and the navicular bone, which is not one of 

 the weight-bearing bones, is brought within the angle of incidence of 

 both weight and concussion, influences which it was never contem- 

 plated it should withstand, and which its structure precludes its sus- 

 taining without injury. The bone becomes first bruised and then dis- 

 eased; the tendon, to which it was intended it should act as a pulley, 

 which passes over and is in constant contact with it, before long also 

 becomes implicated, and what is technically known as navicular arthri- 

 tis is thus engendered and developed. 



