ANATOMY OF THE HORSE. 
303 
Spread. —By the spread is meant the inclination the hoof 
manifests when left unshod, around the toe and sides, to bulge, 
or protrude at bottom, whereby its ground-surface becomes aug¬ 
mented, particularly around the outer quarter. To a certain 
extent this is worthy of observation ; although, in my opinion, 
it is to be regarded rather as an effect of pressure than one of 
abstract growth. The surface of inclination upon which the horn 
is produced has no such spread, nor can the hoof itself be said, 
from growth alone , to have any such natural tendency; but, as 
it continues to grow and shoot beyond the inner foot that pro¬ 
duced it, and to which it was so intimately united, it yields to 
the pressure of the animal’s weight, and bulges or spreads out, 
and more at the outer side than the inner, in consequence of the 
pressure tending more in that direction. If we examine a num¬ 
ber of hoofs of neglected growth, and consequent exuberance 
and deformity, of various descriptions, we may discover that, in 
them all, the spread seems to have been the first or incipient 
deviation from that line of growth viewed as consistent with the 
health and well-doing of the foot. It is only in the unshod hoof 
that any spread is found : as soon as the ground-surface comes 
to be confined by a shoe, pressure can no longer exert its influ¬ 
ence to produce such consequences. 
Mr. Goodwin aptly observes, that il to take the form of the 
hoof correctly, we must strip it of its exuberant or superfluous 
parts, the same as one would pare the superabundant growth off 
our own nails. The neglect of this necessary preparative has 
led to considerable difference of opinion about the natural, 
healthy, or true form of the ground-surface of the foot. Mr. 
Bracy Clark, I conceive, has inclined to the side of error in this 
particular; though, in the substitution of the cylindrical for the 
conical figure of the entire hoof, he has certainly the advantage 
of other writers. His natural foot (Plate \) is one with great 
spread to it, much of which the smith would find it necessary to 
deprive it of, even on the first shoeing'; and the protuberance of 
the outer quarter (which Mr. C. points out as an attribute of 
health) being wholly owing to the spread , will, of course, dis¬ 
appear with the annihilation of the spread*.” 
Although Mr. Goodwin has not here explained what he con¬ 
ceives to be the origin or cause of the spread, it is evident we 
both concur in viewing it rather as a deviation from health or 
nature than a circumstance worthy of the consideration it has 
been accounted of by Mr. Clark. 
Colour. —Hoofs are black or white, or some intermediate 
shade, or they may exhibit a black and white striped or marbly 
* Goodwin’s New System of Shoeing, edit. 11, page 33. 
