HYGIENE OF BREEDING 887 



particularly sound, hard, and tough, and associated with 

 bone of similar class ; some of the very best and soundest 

 horses we have known have had a tendency to this shape 

 of foot. 



The ideal foot for every class of horse should be of 

 medium size in conformity with the rest of the limb. 



The fore feet should be almost round at the toe and 

 should meet the ground at an angle of about 45°, while the 

 hind feet should be more pointed and more upright. The 

 heels of both fore and hind feet should be moderately wide, 

 with well-developed frogs and strong heels, i.e., the heels 

 should not be too low and the horn of the heels and bars 

 not too thin. The sole should be thick, well arched, and 

 composed of good tough horn. 



The horn should be thick, hard, and tough, and there is 

 a very general preference for blue horn over white, white 

 horn having the reputation of being weaker than blue. 



Before leaving the subject of the correct conformation of 

 the foot we would again impress on the breeder the vital 

 importance of sound feet in horses of every class. We feel 

 that it is not possible to emphasize this point too strongly, 

 as no one but a veterinary practitioner of wide experience 

 among working horses can realize its importance. Above 

 all, the horn must be thick and tough, and animals which 

 show any tendency to brittleness or thinness of horn or sole 

 must be rigidly rejected for breeding purposes. 



Deficiency of horn can be most easily detected by pinch- 

 ing the sole with a pair of farrier's pincers, while a thin 

 wall is judged of when the shoe is removed. The great 

 disadvantage of deficiency of horn, in addition to the liability 

 to bruising in the case of the sole, is that in such feet the 

 wall does not grow fast enough to keep pace with the damage 

 done by the nails in shoeing. Consequently, the smith 

 has difficulty in finding sound horn to which to nail the 

 shoe, with the result that it is probably cast, and with it 

 a large piece of the wall. 



This want of sufficient growth is particularly noticeable 

 in feet of this class in the very dry atmosphere of South 



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