REVIEW. 
669 
fresh planted tree promise a more fruitful return than the 
one loaded with the budding, but, as yet, unopened blossoms 
of the art, teaching the right management of horses’ feet and 
the correct practice of shoeing. So much certainly depends 
upon the proper culture in this branch of our art ; so much 
is lost and actual mischief done by error and misconcep- 
tion that, shoeing may be said to form the basis or corner- 
stone of our art, and evidently ought to be that point from 
which innovation and amendment should take its commence- 
ment. 
“The first thing that takes the notice of any one accustomed to see 
horses well shod, on looking at the feet of almost all he meets here, is the 
preposterous length of the toes. So strange, indeed, did this feature seem 
to me at first, that I doubted if the internal parts of the foot could be the 
same as those I had been used to see elsewhere, or if nature had not in a 
freak made them different here from what they are in other places. Subse- 
quent inspection, however, has shown me that this is not the case, that 
nature forms the feet of horses here the same as everywhere else, and that 
the absurd and often ludicrous forms we often see them fashioned into, is 
only the work of the shoeing-smith. When the foot is unshod, and the 
horse at liberty, the growth of the hoof is barely sufficient to provide for 
the constant wear and tear of the sole and toe, and consequently no part is 
either wanting or superabundant. But when the horse is put to work on 
hard roads, and stands in dry stables, the foot becomes inadequate to the 
wear, and to save it we put an iron shoe on. This shoe prevents the wear, 
without checking the growth of the hoof ; and to compensate for this, every 
time the shoe is off, the foot should be brought as near as possible to the 
form and size that nature gave it. In the unshod colt, the greatest diameter 
of the hoof is across the sole. This is especially the case in the fore foot, 
and it contributes materially to the usefulness of the animal that it should 
continue so through life.” 
Again — 
“ Every one knows what is meant by a horse being ‘ sprung in the knees.’ 
Eor the information of those who are curious to know how this condition is . 
produced, I will explain one of its causes. The bones of the foot and 
pastern of the horse do not stand perpendicularly above each other, but 
slope backwards, a considerable portion of the animal’s weight resting on the 
tendons that pass down the back of the leg, and hence the greater the slope, 
the more the strain the tendons have to bear. If we put a horse to stand 
with his head up hill, more exertion is needed to sustain himself than if 
standing on a level. The reason is, that the bones of the foot and pastern 
are thereby placed more obliquely, and more of his weight is thrown upon 
the tendons and muscles, and thus a wearied horse, if left to himself, always 
feeds with his head down hill. But we add to the slope of the foot and 
pastern the same by adding to the length of the hoof and shoe, as by placing 
the horse’s head up hill, and with greater permanency of effects, as we leave 
him no power to relieve himself. Often the two conditions are conjoined, 
the toes are injuriously long, and the horse is confined nine-tenths of his 
time in a sloping stall. Here the muscular exertion of sustaining his weight 
xxvii. 87 
