THE HOOF. 227 



portant points of usefulness. Veterinary surgeons in practice 

 in England and Scotland could tell us that the large majority 

 (I would say about nine-tenths) of cart-horses which come to 

 them for treatment, are foot cases. The ideal hoof for a cart- 

 horse should in no way differ from that which is most suitable 

 to a light trapper, hunter, or race-horse, except that it should 

 be larger and consequently stronger. Therefore, we should 

 regard with disfavour the weak feet, with their low, spread-out 

 heels and flat soles, which, from their frequent occurrence, 

 have become too generally accepted as characteristic of cart- 

 horses. Small contracted feet are equally bad. 



The inner quarter of the foot is more upright than the 

 outer quarter, and its ground surface is straighter ; conditions 

 which provide for the fact of more weight falling on the inner 

 than on the outer part of the foot. The horn has its 

 maximum amount of thickness at the toe (at which part there 

 is the greatest amount of wear from friction with the ground), 

 and gradually gets thinner as it approaches the heels. As the 

 fore feet are intended to support more weight than the hind 

 feet, their ground surface is broader, their frogs are larger, 

 and their heels are lower. 



From many careful measurements of well-formed feet, 

 both in a natural state and when subjected to the influence of 

 shoeing, I have come to the conclusion that the slope of the 

 fore foot, at the toe, should be about 50°, with a variation, 

 one way or the other, of, say, not more than 3°. The slope 

 of the hoof will conform somewhat to that of the pastern. 

 The outside surface of the hoof should be naturally smooth, 

 and should be straight from the coronet to the ground ; for 

 undue roughness, bulging-out, or concavity of surface will 

 probably indicate the presence or previous existence of disease. 



Q 2 



