The Principles of Horse-Slioeing. 
137 
rational shoeing, horses will still be worn out before their natural 
lease of life expires ; though not through the shoeing, but because 
of the toil the shoeing enables them to undergo. 
As shoeing is ordinarily practised, it is a difficult art — the 
difficulty being solely due to the mutilations the hoofs sustain 
at the hands of the farrier. As shoeing ought to be practised, 
nothing can be simpler or easier. The foot of the horse is a per- 
fect organ, thoroughly adapted for its purpose, and man cannot 
improve it. It only needs protection from undue wear, and this 
protection is easily and readily afforded by arming the hoof with 
metal sufficient to last for a certain period. 
In order to understand the general principles of shoeing, a 
glance at the different parts of the hoof is necessary. The wall 
is that portion which surrounds the foot, and is alone seen when 
this is placed on the ground. It is fibrous in structure, the fibres 
passing from above to below, as they grow from where the skin 
terminates. Externally the fibres are dense and resisting, but 
those nearer the interior gradually become soft and spongy. 
The growth of the wall is indefinite, it being the part which 
has to sustain wear through contact with the ground. 
When the foot is lifted, the sole and frog are seen on its lower 
or ground surface. The sole is usually more or less concave in 
a healthy foot. It is fibrous, like the wall, its fibres passing in 
the same direction ; but they are much softer, and their growth 
is definite, they breaking off in the form of flakes when they 
have reached a certain length. The frog is a triangular mass 
of somewhat soft and elastic fibrous horn, situated at the pos- 
terior part of the sole. Like that part, its fibres are also of 
definite giowth, and flake off in large patches from time to 
time. 
The wall sustains weight and wear on all kinds of ground ; 
the sole is adapted for sustaining weight on soft ground more 
particularly ; while the frog has a most important use in acting 
as a cushion to support the powerful tendon which flexes the 
limb, in diminishing jar, and in preventing slipping. 
:. The unpared sole and frog of the healthy foot need no pro- 
tection on any kind of soil. The flakes of loose horn on the 
former serve a very useful purpose in retaining moisture, and 
so keeping the solid horn beneath soft and elastic, while they 
act as so many springs when the foot is placed on projecting 
stones. The more the frog is exposed to wear, so the larger 
and sounder it grows, and the better it is for the entire foot and 
limb. 
The fore foot is of more importance, in the matter of shoeing, 
than the hind one, inasmuch as it has to support much more 
weight, and is consequently more exposed to disease and injury. 
