THE LIMBS 



191 



choose the ground it runs over, the wear of the hoof is 

 in exact proportion to its growth, and the organ always 

 maintains itself in perfect condition. If, however, the 

 horse is confined to ground so soft that only insufficient 

 abrasion of the free surface of the hoofs can take place, 

 they grow to an abnormal length. Horses turned out 

 in the Falkland Islands, where the whole of the surface 

 of the land consists of soft, moist, mossy bog, often 

 have hoofs nearly a foot in length, bending and curling 

 up in various directions, so that the animal at last can 

 scarcely stand upon them. On the other hand, horses 

 that are kept at work upon artificially hardened roads 

 wear their hoofs so much faster than they grow, that 

 from time immemorial their masters have found it 

 necessary to protect them with some kind of artificial 

 covering. Hence the almost universal use of iron shoes 

 for horses in a state of domestication. Unfortunately the 

 subject of horse-shoeing has been too long left in the 

 hands of ignorant mechanics, by whose obstinate adhesion 

 to routine and ancient custom all the attempts of those 

 who have endeavoured to introduce a more rational 

 system are constantly foiled. This subject, however, 

 though of immense practical importance, 1 is beyond the 



1 Among many other works, see a small pamphlet on The Struc- 

 ture of the Horse's Foot, and the Principles of Shoeing, by Prof. G. T. 

 Brown, C.B., reprinted from the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England (1888), and the larger work of Dr. George 

 Fleming, C.B., on Horse Shoes and Horse Shoeing, 1889. 



