loo CAUSES OF UNSOUNDNESS. 



horse may perform his work satisfactorily on the 

 land, but directly he comes into town, becomes 

 lame. In London, and other towns, it is a common 

 practice to shoe the lighter horses with pads, or 

 leathers, both of which are detrimental to the 

 preservation of the foot, although it may be 

 necessary to employ them to diminish concussion. 

 All veterinary surgeons do remove, or should, the 

 shoes on the fore feet, before concluding the ex- 

 amination of a horse for soundness. Every buyer 

 of horses should make a point of doing this. The 

 foot should be proportionate to the size of the 

 animal, and neither too narrow, nor too wide. 

 Large feet upon a roadster, for instance, are ob- 

 jectionable ; so are those which are too small. If 

 the heels are too high it gives the foot a " boxy " 

 appearance, and throws too much bearing on the 

 front part of the hoof ; whereas, when the heels 

 are low, the structures at the back part of the foot 

 are very liable to injury through continued con- 

 cussion. The wall ; the sole ; the coronet ; and the 

 frog, are all liable to disease, but one of the 

 principal diseases of the feet, is that known as : 

 Side-bone, or calcification of the lateral cartilages. 

 The lateral cartilages are flexible plates situated 

 at the back of the inner and outer sides of the 



