CHAPTER XLI: 



THE HORSE'S FOOT. 



The wall — The sole — The frog — The bars — Coffin bone — Pedal bone — 

 Shoeing horses — First introduced into England A. D. 1060 — Require- 

 ments of public shoers — Injuries by bad shoeing — Leveling and 

 balancing — No foot, no horse — Never pare sole or frog — Fit shoe 

 to the foot — The clip — Use of rasp in shoeing — Fiber shoes. 



THE external anatomy of the foot may be divided into four 

 important parts or divisions, viz. : The wall or outer 

 crust from the coronet to the sole ; the sole, that part which 

 covers the whole remaining bottom of the foot excepting the frog 

 and the bars ; the frog, consisting of that insensible, spongy, 

 triangular body in the center of the foot ; the bars, which are 

 merely a continuation of the wall, extending therefrom at the 

 heels obliquely into the center of the foot between the sole and 

 the frog, constituting two inner walls or lateral fences between 

 that body and the sole. In a state of nature they bear some 

 pressure. 



The Wall. The circular boundary wall inclosing the inter- 

 nal structures from the coronet (the border line where the skin 

 joins the hoof), in an oblique direction to the bottom of the 

 foot, terminates in a circular projecting border ; consequently 

 we find that the wall is the natural bearing part of the foot, 

 and the frog an accessory. The bearing of the shoe should be 

 wholly on the wall, not on the sole ; and the ground surface of 

 the wall is the only part that should ever be pared. This is 

 the part that, like the human nail, grows " exuberantly," and 

 must be pared down every time that the horse is shod, but the 

 knife should never be used on the sole or frog. This wall is 

 adapted as a defense to the sensitive parts within. It is com- 

 posed of small filaments or hollow tubes, consolidated in such 



(320) 



