JUDICIOUS TREATMENT OF THE FEET. 293 
Injudicious treatment of the horse when young is in most 
cases the origin of the evil. And though the shape of the 
shoe, the preparation of the foot for its reception, and the 
method of securing it, are matters which deserve our attention, 
it will be well in the first place to ascertain the treatment 
most likely to assist development of the foot itself. For if 
the horse when young has a foot that is well formed and free 
from disease, little danger may be apprehended from shoeing. 
In truth the point at issue is not so much this or the other 
scientific principle applied to shoeing, as the simplest way of 
keeping a horse sound in its feet. 
In the present day horses are treated much better than in 
past times, both in their infancy and maturity; and in no 
respect is the improvement more marked than in the treat- 
ment of the feet. Except in the cases when the animal is 
born with the defect, the cause of contracted, ill-shaped, and 
diseased feet, is undoubtedly the hardness of the ground on 
which horses when young are often made to remain during 
the heat of the day, and the absence of moisture generally. 
If foals bred on light gravelly soil or on chalk, are allowed 
with their dams to depasture in roomy paddocks early and 
late in the day when the dew is on the grass, and immediately 
after either rain or fog, there will be the requisite moisture to 
promote the growth of the horn and insure the development 
of good feet. The necessity of moisture for their growth and 
proper expansion is acknowledged, and often when foals or 
older horses suffer for want of it, resort is had to the uncom- 
fortable clay beds, or to enveloping the feet in wet cloths. 
It is needless to say that these processes are at best a 
poor substitute for natural means, and have the additional 
drawback that the animals seldom touch their food whilst 
undergoing them. 
