HORSESHOEING. 589 
flowing into the pododerm, favor the rapid growth of horn of good 
quality; while lack of exercise, dryness of the horn, and excessive 
length of the hoof hinder growth. 
The average rate of growth is about one-third of an inch a month. 
Hind hoofs grow faster than fore hoofs and unshod ones faster than 
shod ones. The time required for the horn to grow from the coronet 
to the ground, though influenced to a slight degree by the precited 
conditions, varies in proportion to the distance of the coronet from 
the ground. At the toe, depending on its height, the horn grows 
down in 11 to 13 months, at the side wall in 6 to 8 months, and at the 
heels in 8 to 5 months. We can thus estimate with tolerable accu- 
racy the time required for the disappearance of such defects in the 
hoof as cracks, clefts, etc. 
Irregular growth is not infrequent. The almost invariable cause 
of this is an improper distribution of the body weight over the 
hoof—that is, an unbalanced foot. Colts running in soft pasture or 
confined for long periods in the stable are frequently allowed to grow 
hoofs of excessive length. The long toe becomes “ dished ”—that is, 
concave from the coronet to the ground—the long quarters curl for- 
ward and inward and often completely cover the frog and lead to 
contraction of the heels, or the whole hoof bends outward or inward, 
and a crooked foot, or, even worse, a crooked leg, is the result if the 
long hoof be allowed to exert its powerful and abnormally directed 
leverage for but a few months upon young plastic bones and tender 
and lax articular ligaments. All colts are not foaled with straight 
legs, but failure to regulate the length and bearing of the hoof may 
make a straight leg crooked and a crooked leg worse, just as intelli- 
gent care during the growing period can greatly improve a con- 
genitally crooked limb. If breeders were more generally cognizant 
of the power of overgrown and unbalanced hoofs to divert the lower 
bones of young legs from their proper direction, and, therefore, to 
cause them to be moved improperly, with loss of speed and often with 
injury to the limbs, we might hope to see fewer knock-kneed, bow- 
legged, “ splay-footed,” “ pigeon-toed,” cow-hocked, interfering, and 
paddling horses. ; 
If in shortening the hoof one side wall is, from ignorance, left too 
long or cut down too low with relation to the other, the foot will be 
unbalanced, and in traveling the long section will touch the ground 
first and will continue to do so till it has been reduced to its proper 
level (length) by the increased wear which will take place at this 
point. While this occurs rapidly in unshod hoofs, the shoe prevents 
wear of the hoof, though it is itself more rapidly worn away beneath 
the high (long) side than elsewhere, so that by the time the shoe is 
worn out the tread of the shoe may be flat. If this mistake be re- 
peated from month to month, the part of the wall left too high will 
