SHOEING COLTS. 57 



the one thing that we can depend upon to, keep 

 the foot in its natural elastic state, the sole and 

 bars depend upon the frog to furnish them with 

 moisture, and they in turn, when pliable, protect 

 the structures that are above them. If the frog 

 and bars are left intact, as nature intended they 

 should be, we will not be troubled with contrac- 

 tion, and its sequels, such as corns and quarter 

 cracks. The frog takes care of the entire foot, 

 there is no substitute, that man has discovered as 

 yet, that will take the place of the. good, healthy, 

 unmutilated frog as a moisture secreting organ, 

 and never under any conditions, should it be cut 

 into. It is permissible to trim off the ragged 

 edges, and rightly, too, but there are few, indeed, 

 who can resist the temptation to cut off just a 

 little more than is necessary — ^the idea being to 

 give the frog a symmetrical appearance — to make 

 it take on the appearance of some of the pictures 

 we occasionally see labeled — a natural foot. The 

 fact of the matter is, that a natural foot, unr 

 touched by the hand of man, or his misery pro- 

 ducing tools, is about as unsymmetrical a piece of 

 handiwork as the Creator ever endowed an ani- 

 mal with, yet we attempt to make a model shaped 

 organ out of this crude appearing mass of sensi- 

 tive and insensitive tissue. It is not desirable to 

 interfere with the growth of the foot at all, outside 

 of shortening the wall sufficiently to enable us to 

 get a good level bearing for the shoe. The frog, bars 



