66 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 
If the ruinous process sketched yesterday is to be averted, 
it is evident that it can only be so by Reeping the heels 
and quarters low by careful rasping of the horn at those 
parts, and the thinnest possible piece of iron put upon 
them. We have also seen what indispensable services 
the arch renders ; and yet we see the smith weakening it 
by paring with the drawing knife. Taking into consi- 
deration the vast wealth invested in horseflesu in this 
country and the enormous deterioration of this capital 
through lameness in the fore feet, which everybody sees 
and admits, there could be no better service rendered to 
the horse universe, and therefore to the State, than the. 
passing of an Act of Parliament rendering it a misde- 
meanour for any person in shoeing a horse to reduce the 
thickness of his soles or frog, or to put under his heels 
and quarters iron exceeding a defined thickness, except 
under the certificate of a qualified veterinary surgeon, 
which should, after defining the horse, explain the need 
for the same. Horses, like every other property, are 
national property, and a man owning them mediately 
has no more right to deface them than he has to deface 
the coin of the realm, which he also owas only mediately. 
“What's mine’s my own,’* is still the creed, not only of 
the vulgar, but of those who\ought at least to know the 
rudiments of political economy, 
Again, referring to our classification, we find flat soles 
are the next anomaly of shape. | We have already arrived. 
at the main conclusion regarding this defect. The causes 
of flat soles are three :— \ 
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