194 
ON THE CONFORMATION OF HORSES. 
wild without shoes. The farrier can never change the predisposing 
causes — he cannot alter conformation, although he is often expected 
to do so. This horse would require the inner heel of the fore foot 
to be most sprung, as there is most action there. If a wheeler in 
harness, the hind shoes would require to be made thicker on the 
outside, or to be steeled there. 1 know at once, from the descrip- 
tion, that if this horse had a contracted fore foot, it must be the 
inner heel only , and from his weight it would be a low heel, and 
not a high one, although a thorough-bred horse. Notwithstanding 
high heels are oftener found among light blood horses, yet there 
are many with heavy fore quarters and large bone, with increased 
volume of hoof, and low heels; besides this, there are many heavy 
dray-horses with the angles of the joints so obtuse, or so upright in 
the limbs, that, notwithstanding the weight, the hoofs are upright 
and the soles concave ; but the low heel and flat sole is more fre- 
quent among heavy varieties of the horse. 
The area of the base of the hoof is therefore different in animals 
of different ages and classes of conformation ; as a general rule, 
the greater the degree of weight supported by the hoof the greater 
the area of the base. It is of least area in the foal, more in the 
yearling, still more in the two-year-old, and increases with the 
substance and weight of the horse. The area is also greater in the 
second class of conformation than the first, and still greater in the 
third than the second ; whilst in the fourth class (hind feet), by the 
same law, they have a smaller area. 
As there is most shelving at that portion of the hoof which has 
the most tranferred weight to support, so is there most action in 
the opposite direction to the shelving ; thus, if the shelving is on 
the outer part of the front, the greatest wear is on the inner heel, 
and vice versa ; but when the shelving is on both sides of the 
front, or directly in front, the action of both heels is alike 
In a state of nature, on a dry soil, the heels always become 
curved, varying in degree with the conformation ; but when the 
weight is sustained on the foot the curved portions come down to 
the level by the declination of the foot in the direction of the force 
impressed. This is forcibly shewn in the young horses in Arabia, 
and indeed throughout the east, which follow the dam ; but in 
England, where a colt is reared in a field of soft grass, or in a 
paddock, the heels may not be worn ; but the action of the hoof 
nevertheless goes on in the soft ground, although it would be im- 
possible for it to take place on level hard ground, where wear would 
begin to take place at such parts as there was most action, accord- 
ing to conformation ; and thus would Nature soon find her own 
remedy. 
Now, it is very easy to apply what takes place in the different 
