294 SHOEING AND THE FOOT. 
On the other hand, with horses bred on wet clay or on 
undrained heavy land, the opposite treatment is necessary. 
Here, the fear is the too rapid growth of the foot; and the 
aim should be to keep the mare and foal on dry litter in the 
stable until the dew has disappeared ; and when the ground 
is more than usually wet to limit the time for exercise and 
feeding in the open air to a few hours only of cach day. 
The adoption of the system indicated as proper to either 
case, would be to aim at that prevention which is better than 
cure. It is scarcely necessary to observe that yearlings should 
be brought up in much the same way ‘in this respect ; and so 
much being said of the method of producing good feet, we 
may turn to consider how they should be treated in order to 
keep them sound. 
In this respect, it follows that the same principle more or 
less is applicable throughout. Should your training ground 
have a surface and subsoil such as I have described as 
desirable, the horses should always be exercised early, whicn 
the dew is on the grass or the land saturated with moisture. 
By this treatment the foot is kept in a healthy state ; the 
growth of new horn equals in quantity the old horn which 
it is found necessary to remove at each time of shoeing, and 
supply and demand are equalised. But reverse the process; 
keep your horses in the stable and only exercise them (as 
indeed too many are only exercised) in fine dry weather, and 
though well looked after in every other respect, they fall 
lame, and the blacksmith is unfairly found fault with. It 
may be well to add, on this head, that where horses cannot be 
exercised under the desirable conditions I have namcd, the 
feet should be well washed once or twice a day, and kept 
supple with tar and grease plentifully supplied—in winter 
two o: three times a weck, and oftener in summer—and 
