The Foot — Its Care and Shoeing. Ill 



be used. No animal should have to stand in wet or 

 muddy places for any considerable length of time or such 

 diseases as foot rot, thrush and canker will result. 



A good hoof should be straight in the wall, no hollows 

 or unevenness, no cracks or fissures when felt with the 

 palm of the hand, it should be smooth; a rough, harsh 

 feeling and a dry appearance indicates brittleness. The 

 bulbs of the heels should be rounded and strong, the sole 

 concave (hollow) and not separated from the wall at the 

 white line. The frog should be strong, well developed 

 with its cleft broad, dry and shallow, no unpleasant 

 smell should be present. The bars should have a for- 

 ward and inward direction to the point of the frog, there 

 should be no stains in the sole at the heels, while the 

 lateral cartilages should be elastic to the finger touch, 

 the periople should not have been rasped away. In cat- 

 tle and sheep the wall should be trimmed to about the 

 level of the sole, and the points of the toes rounded off. 



Shoeing. On account of the artificial condition that 

 animals, particularly horses, are subjected to, special 

 treatment of the feet had to be provided, such treatment, 

 a necessary evil though it is, evil because it interferes 

 more or less with the natural action of the foot, is termed 

 shoeing. 



Horseshoeing is an art dating from the Gauls before 

 the Christian era, William the Conqueror is said to have 

 introduced shoeing into England. Napoleon's disastrous 

 retreat from Moscow was made worse from lack of horse- 

 shoeing, and as modern warfare employs horses for cav- 

 alry and artillery purposes to a greater extent than for- 

 merly, horseshoeing becomes a necessity. In the more 



