CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 95 



The horse is an animal designed by nature for coffin bone, iu 

 active life. Observe him in pasture: he is sel- [10^1^ main' 

 dom to be seen lying down, more seldom standing thTfoof in a 



. \ .11 1 1*1 state of nature. 



still, but almost mvariably on the move seeking the 

 best herbage. Be cautious never to attach any 

 thing whatever to his hoofs by way of defence, at 

 any period of his life; and never tie up his head 

 for confinement ; and he will have as good a foot at 

 forty years of age as he had when a four-years-old- 

 colt ; mainly owing, I might almost say solely, to 

 the unrestrained, constant, alternate extension and 

 retraction of the elastic laminae by which the foot 

 bones are suspended in the hoof. Why do the 

 bones never fail to preserve the natural foot ex- 

 panded ? Because the weight and movement of the 

 horse keep his coffin and navicular bones in perpe- 

 tual motion, and mechanically spread the wall of 

 the foot in every direction. 



Upon my first addressing the veterinary profession 

 on the subject of side-nailed shoeing, I expressed 

 my doubts as to the eligibility of that plan for 

 hunters, owing to their known liability to cast their 



from the upward pressure against the frog, as from the downward 

 pressure of the limb and weight of the body upon the bones of the 

 foot, that should produce this effect of expansion upon the yielding- 

 contents of the hoof: timely assisted, and in due time prevented, 

 from too much depression in this direction, by meeting with the sup- 

 port of the frog, then brought to the ground at the time when the 

 strain and weight is greatest ; the sides of the foot then expanding- 

 laterally through their whole extent, and springing back again to 

 their places on the removal of the exertion and weight." 



