162 OBSERVATIONS ON INJURIES, ETC., AMONG ARMY HORSES. 
ment it is intended that they should give an impression at a 
single heat, and have an advantage over letters that require a 
separate application. Government issue these brands, but 
we do not allow them to be used. 
If the centre letter were applied first, the brand must be 
turned either to R or A, and must be brought back over the 
II ; the consequence is that the two perpendicular branches 
of the H are burnt much deeper than the other letters, and 
this must always be the case as long as hoofs are convex in 
front ; but when they become flat, or even concave, by reason 
of inordinate and unnecessary burning, as we know they do, 
the joined letters can be employed with as little impunity as 
the separate ones. 
We should be very sorry to say how many horses we know 
with the front part of their fore hoofs presenting flattened 
aspects, aud all due to the destructive influence of branding. 
This state of things was so evident in a battery of horses that 
the veterinary surgeon in charge told us, he should feel com- 
pelled to carry his report farther than might be appreciated, 
for he considered — as we did, knowing the horses well — that 
most of the fore feet were mis-shapen or literally deformed. 
We must confess the same condition exists among the animals 
in our charge, and we, like others, have often brought the fact 
to the notice of those concerned. For our part we do not see 
the necessity for injuring the hoofs in this way ; horses do not 
abscond, are rarely, if ever lost, and there is always something 
about each to recognise him by, especially in India. Stud bred 
horses are branded, under the saddle, on each side the back, and 
do not need to have their hoofs interfered with, for they are 
naturally predisposed to be ill-shapen and diseased. As to 
Australian horses, they are characteristic enough by their 
branded shoulders or thighs. Such being the case, why in 
the world is it requisite to mutilate the fronts of army horses* 
fore feet? The foot is sufficiently tampered with, even in 
our system of shoeing. We do not allow the score of the rasp 
to be visible on the crust ; but the division of hundreds of horn 
fibres, the entire destruction of their substance, in parts they 
can be least dispensed with, and when they are of recent de- 
velopment, as well as the removal of the natural coating of 
the hoof, are evils sanctioned from the time a horse joins his 
corps till the time of his quitting the service by death or 
casting. The practice is a reprehensible one, and might be 
arrested if represented by the proper quarter. It ought, in 
our humble opinion, to be discarded at once and in toto . 
If branding is essential or even considered to be so, it will 
be infinitely wiser for some other and softer part of the body 
