52 TIPS AND TOE-WEIGHTS. 



vaquero can gallop over siich ground without injury to the feet 'and 

 legs, save the wear the fi'iction at the toe compels, why should the 

 road-horse, with only the weight of the harness, and a part of that 

 of the shafts, give out ? 



From all the testimony I have been able to obtain, corns and quar- 

 ter-cracks were never known in horses which were not shod, and in 

 a former chapter the reasons why this should be the case were par- 

 tially given. A corn arises from~ a bruise or undue pressure on the 

 part where it is located, and the quarter-crack is the result of con- 

 cussion; while one part of the foot is bound by the shoe, the elasticity 

 of the Coronary ligament forces the fibres apart. The textiire of the 

 horn has been injured not only by the condition of the foot being 

 abnormal, from the confinement of the heel, the wasting away of the 

 frog and the i-emoval of the sole, but the soaking, the stuffings, and 

 the a])plication of ointments, have destroyed the life of the deposit, 

 until it has more resemblance to the foot of a dead horse tlian the 

 tough, elastic material which natui'e has given. The maceration in 

 the soaking-tub is followed by coating the surface with an oily prepa- 

 ration, and this deceives the eye, as it gives somewhat the appearance 

 of the enamel which nature has provided. This natural enamel is a 

 thin filament of great strength, when compared to the horn beneath 

 it, and while it gives the hoof a degree of hardness to withstand the 

 wear better, it also prevents the moistvire from soaking the agglutin- 

 izing material which fastens the layers of horn together. The smith 

 has rasped a gz'eat part of this glazing away, and the water pene- 

 trates readily, is absorbed, the structux'e weakened, and when the 

 blow comes, the expansion below being hampered, the fibres are torn 

 asunder. 



The " road-driver " may say: "What is this to me 1 My horses are 

 not troubled with quarter-cracks, and I am sure they are fi*ee from 

 corns." I have seen more quarter-cracks in California, in four years, 

 than in all my life before, and this probably ai'ises from the long, dry 

 summers, making the customaiy treatment of the feet more injui'ious 

 than in the East. That it is npt caused by tlie climate alone is 

 proven by the native unshod. horses never having quarter-cracks, and 

 it requires the two causes to account for them being so prevalent. 



