4(> ON SHOEING HOUSES THAT STRIKE Oil CUT. 
of the shoes, taken as before, were regularly reduced to eight 
inches and a half. 
EXPERIMENT III. 
The same shoes were placed on the opposite feet, so that the 
thick heel was on the outer quarter; and the result, under circum- 
stances exactly the same as the foregoing experiments, was that 
the distance between the outer edges of the points of the shoes 
was regularly increased to eleven inches. 
To account for these results, it is necessary to attend closely to 
the different effects produced by the weight of the fore part of 
the body acting upon the two fore feet, when raised on the inner or 
outer quarters, during the opposite states of rest and action. And 
first, with regard to shoes raised on the inner quarter : Whilst 
a horse so shod is standing still, the fetlock joints are certainly 
thrown farther apart than when any other kind of shoe is used. 
Hence it was concluded, that the limb which supported the body 
would have its fetlock joint thrown so much outwards as to keep 
it completely out of the way of the foot in motion. But it 
appears that the impressions made on the ground by such shoes 
are an inch nearer together than those made by parallel shoes, 
and two inches nearer together than those made by shoes raised 
on the outer quarter. And this may be thus explained : when 
the horse is at rest, the weight is supported equally by the two 
fore feet ; but the instant one foot quits the ground, the weight 
is suddenly transferred to the other, and by the outer quarter being 
lower than the opposite one, the fore part of the horse has a 
tendency to fall over the outside. To prevent this, the moving 
foot is suddenly brought close to the fetlock of the supporting 
foot, in order to relieve it by catching the weight, and the foot 
itself is placed on the ground too much under the middle breast. 
The same circumstance occurs to both feet in their turn; and the 
horse, being thus in constant danger of falling to one side or the 
other, is constrained to bring his feet near together to preserve 
his balance, and in doing this strikes the foot against the oppo- 
site fetlock. 
It frequently happens, that the more the toes are turned out- 
wards the nearer the fetlock joints are brought together, and the 
more the horse is disposed to cut. However, this is true only 
to a certain extent ; for if this faulty position of the lower part 
of the leg be carried artificially beyond a certain point, instead of 
producing an increased degree of cutting, in most instances it 
remedies the defect altogether. The reason of this is just the 
reverse of what takes place when the inner quarter is raised ; that 
