CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF ANIMALS 805 



parts of the human foot to be thinned until the sensitive 

 parts beneath were exposed. 



When the foot pad is cut away the heels contract, the 

 pad shrivels up and is thrown out of use, the cleft becomes 

 diseased, and the whole foot in a bad case becomes 

 narrower. 



A practice in shoeing known as ' opening the heels ' is 

 carried out with the knife, a wedge-shaped piece of horn 

 being cut out of the junction between the bar and foot pad. 

 It is as senseless as it is harmful. 



It is a remarkable fact that the three structures in the 

 hoof which protect the sensitive parts within or ward off 

 concussion, should be stripped of their obvious functions 

 by these insane mutilations. 



The other mutilations which are inflicted on the foot are 

 perpetrated on the wall by means of the rasp. Frequently 

 in indifferent shoeing the shoe does not take the outline of 

 the crust, and after being nailed on the projecting portion 

 of the wall is rasped away to agree with the outline of the 

 shoe. When the function of the wall is borne in mind, it 

 is obvious that this reduction of the weight-bearing surface 

 is wholly indefensible. There are very few horses turned 

 out from a forge that have not had the whole of the wall 

 rasped from the coronet to the ground surface to improve 

 its appearance ! As a matter of fact this is one cause of 

 brittle feet, by allowing increased evaporation of water 

 from the torn surface of thousands of horn tubes. 



No mention has up to the present been made as to the 

 pattern of shoe, for the reason that there is nothing in 

 patterns. A light horse should be shod with a light shoe, 

 a heavy horse with a heavy shoe. The weight is merely a 

 question of wear and tear, and the undesirability of shoeing 

 too frequently. Provided a shoe admits of the principles 

 above laid down being complied with, its pattern is an 

 unimportant matter, which can be left to the fancy of the 

 farrier or the taste of the owner. The only exceptions we 

 can make to this statement are that most riding horses, or 

 others intended for trotting work, go better in a shoe turned 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



