CONTRACTION. 385 



hard work, and when the injury produced by shoeing in destroying the expan- 

 sibility of the foot would most of all show itself, the foot lasts a great deal longer 

 than the leg ; nay, horsemen tell us that one pair of good feet is worth two 

 pairs of legs. 



Having thus premised that contraction is not inevitably accompanied by 

 lameness, and that shoeing, with all its evils, does not necessarily injure the 

 foot, those cases of contraction, too numerous, which are the consequence of our 

 stable management, and which do cripple and ruin the horse, may be considered. 

 There is nothing in the appearance of the feet which would enable us to decide 

 when contraction is or is not destructive to the usefulness of the animal ; his 

 manner of going, and his capability for work, must be our guides. Lameness 

 usually accompanies the beginning of contraction ; it is the invariable attendant 

 on rapid contraction, but it does not always exist when the wiring in is slow or 

 of long standing. 



A very excellent writer, particularly when treating of the foot of the horse, 

 Mr. Blaine, has given us a long and correct list of the causes of injurious 

 contraction, and most of them are, fortunately, under the control of the owner 

 of the animal. He places at the head of them, neglect of paring. The hoof is 

 continually growing, the crust is lengthening, and the sole is thickening. This 

 is a provision for the wear and tear of the foot in an unshod state ; but when it 

 is protected by a shoe, and none of the horn can be worn away by coming in 

 contact with the ground, and the growth of horn continues, the hoof grows 

 high, and the sole gets thick, and, in consequence of this, the descent of the 

 sole and the expansion of the heels are prevented, and contraction is the result. 

 The smith might lessen, if not prevent the evil, by carefully thinning the sole 

 and lowering the heels at each shoeing ; but the first of these is a matter oi 

 considerable labour, and the second could not be done effectually without being 

 accompanied by the first, and therefore they are both neglected. The pre- 

 judice of many owners of horses assists in increasing the evil ; they imagine 

 that a great deal of mischief is done by cutting away the foot. Mischief may 

 be the result of injudicious cutting, when the bars are destroyed and the frog is 

 elevated from the ground ; but more evil results from the unyielding thickness 

 of horn impairing the elastic and expansive principle of the foot. If gentlemen 

 would occasionally stand by, and see that the sole is properly thinned, and the 

 heels lowered, they would he amply repaid in the comfort and usefulness of 

 the horse. 



Ill-judged economy Is another source of this disease. If the shoes of one 

 smith will, with ordinary work, last a little more than three weeks, while 

 another contrives to make his last six weeks, he is supposed to be the better 

 workman and the more honest man, and he gets the greater part of the custom. 

 His shoe is suffered to remain on during the whole time, to the manifest injury 

 of the feet, and that injury is materially increased by the greater thickness 

 and weight of these shoes, and the tightness with which they are fastened on, 

 the nails being necessarily placed nearer to the quarters, and possibly an addi- 

 tional nail or two used in the fastening, and these also applied at the quarters. 

 There is no rule which admits of so little exception, as that, once in about every 

 three weeks, the growth of horn which the natural wear of the foot cannot get 

 rid of, should be pared away — the too should be shortened in most feet — the solo 



should be thinned, and the heels lowered. Every one who has carefully ob- 

 served the Bhape of the horse's foot, must have seen that in proportion to its 



height or neglected growth, it contracts and closes round the coronet. A 

 low-heeled horse might have other serious defects, of which it will be our duty 

 to speak, hut he has seldom a contracted foot. 

 Another source of contraction is the want of natural moisture. The unshod, 



c o 



