CAUSES OF LAMENESS. 295 
then stopped with cow-dung. Exposure to excessive 
moisture, on the other hand, is equally to be deprecated, and 
is, indeed, equally under the control of the trainer. The two 
extreme conditions are fruitful sources of disease—want of 
moisture often produces sandcrack contractions, excess of it 
as frequently produces thrush. 
These are the causes of lameness, as I have said, much 
more frequently than the negligence of the blacksmith or his 
want of capacity. Quittors, I allow, may arise from the nail 
being driven too near the quick, or actually into the sensible 
part of the foot; and corns, which also often cause lameness 
to follow, may result from the shoe being drawn on over- 
tight; yet it should be remembered that the one may also 
arise from a neglected overreach, and the other from a blow. 
But an efficient blacksmith, my own experience tells me, 
seldom makes mistakes. During the twenty-five years in 
which I have had on the average some fifty horses in my 
stables, they have been shod one and all by my country 
smith and his assistant—and the former, although he had had 
no previous experience, and had been deprived early in life 
of the sight of an eye, never to my knowledge lamed one, or 
at all events never lamed one in a serious manner. It is clear 
therefore that lameness in most cases should be attributed to 
some other cause than to bad shoeing, or to the defective 
construction of the shoe itself. In truth, when we conside 
the thousands of horses that are continually running, and 
how often they are newly shod, the wonder is, not that a 
few horses fall lame from shoeing, but that so many remain 
sound ; and in fairness we should give to the blacksmith the 
credit that is demonstrably his due. 
We have seen in the XIIth Chapter how the yearling is 
managed and older horses are trained. With respect to 
