220 DISEASES OF THE FEET. 



LIABILITY. — The chief predisposing causes of corns are weak 

 heels and fiat soles ; fast work on hard ground ; and bad shoeing. 



POSITION. — Corns occur frequently in the fore feet. They 

 are rarely found in the hind ones ; the reasons being that they are 

 far less exposed to concussion than the former ; their soles, are, 

 naturally, more arched, and, consequently, less exposed to injury,; 

 the heels are stronger, and as a rule are not lowered so much 

 in shoeing as the heels of the fore feet. The fact that corns 

 occur much more frequently on the inner heel, than on the outer, 

 is usually accounted for by the supposition that more Aveight is 

 thrown on the inner than on the outer side of the foot ; but the 

 general custom of shoeing horses very " close " on the inside heel, 

 is, I think, much more to blame. This liability may also be in- 

 fluenced by the more perpendicular position of the wall of the 

 inside of the hoof, and by the fact that this wall of the foot is 

 weaker than that of the outer side. 



CAUSES AND PREVENTION.— The chief cause is a faulty 

 system of shoeing, by which pressure becomes applied to the 

 " seat of corn." The common and pernicious practice .of cutting 

 away the bars, undoubtedly, disposes the foot to contract this 

 ailment ; for the wall at the heels, when it loses the support 

 afforded by the bars, is apt to bend inwards and to press on the 

 seat of corn. It sometimes happens that, when " preparing " the 

 foot, the smith rasps down the wall at the heels without also 

 reducing the horn over the seat of corn, which then bears the 

 greater part of the pressoire, with the natural result of this injury. 

 Again, when the heels of the shoe are " sprung," that is, when a 

 space is left between them and the horny heels, grit and particles 

 of stone are apt to work in between the web of the shoe and the 

 '' seat of com," and, consequently, to hurt the latter on account 

 of its being constantly hammered upon by the shoe, whenever the 

 animal moves. 



The principal manner, however, in which horses get corns from 

 shoeing, is undoubtedly the practice adopted with hunters and 

 other saddle-horses, of having the shoos on the fore feet short 

 at the heels, and of making the outward edge of the inner heel 

 of the shoe to coincide with the outward edge of the wall of the 

 hoof at that part, or even " set " slightly inside it. Hore, although 

 the position of the shoe is perfect* for the time being; it does 

 not allow for the continued opening out and lengthening which the 

 heels undergo during the downward growth of the hoof. Conse- 

 quently, when a shoe is applied in this way, and is allowed to 

 remain on, say, for six weeks, the heels of the shoe, instead of 



