304 
ANATOMY OF THE HORSE. 
aspect. It is an old observation, and one that passes current 
among us at the present day, that black or dark-shaded hoofs 
possess greater strength and durability, and indicate less prone¬ 
ness in the feet to disease, than such as are composed of white or 
striped horn. The rationale of which appears to be, that white 
horn (the same as white hair) is the product of parts weaker by 
nature than such as produce dark or black horn, and, being 
weaker, consequently are more liable to disease, less able to resist 
those impressions that tend to disorder. White hoofs are more 
porous than black ones, and consequently absorb moisture and 
lose it again by evaporation with more facility : a fact that may 
probably aid us in accounting for the failures attributed to them. 
Magnitude .—It requires no veterinary skill to discover any very 
material disproportion in the magnitude of the foot: it will strike 
us at once as being large or small , in comparison to the limb or 
the size of the animal. A foot of any description that is out of 
proportion is to the horse possessing it more or less objectionable: 
but for all that, these out-of-proportion feet, abstractedly con¬ 
sidered, have their advantages as well as their disadvantages. 
Sainbel tells us, that a large wide hoof, by extending the surface 
of tread, “ will increase the stability and firmness of the fabric 
but then, he adds, “this partial advantage grows into an evil 
when it becomes applied to a body capable of translation, and 
considered in a state of actual motion ; because, then, the mass 
and might of the foot overburthen the muscles of the extremity.” 
And because, I would add, the surfaces of contract being greater, 
the attraction of cohesion becomes greater, and so much the more 
muscular force is required to raise the foot (particularly in moist 
ground) from the earth. Besides which, a large foot is apt to 
become objectionable from its striking, during action, the oppo¬ 
site leg. On the other hand, it is contended, that a large foot 
will not sink so deep into soft ground as a small one, and conse¬ 
quently will not demand so great an effort of strength to draw it 
out. This is an argument, however, that can only hold good under 
the supposition, that in both cases the muscular strength is equal, 
which we know but rarely to happen; in general, broad or flat- 
footed horses possessing superior strength; small narrow-footed 
ones, superior speed. There cannot be a doubt about a large 
foot being unfavourable for speed ; a small one for stability : 
neither one nor the other can be indiscriminately found fault with: 
both within certain limits possess their respective advantages; 
though to turn out as such, they each of them require to be com¬ 
bined with suitable conformation and action. 
Large bulky hoofs are found to be mechanically weaker than 
others, in consequence of being composed of a thin, soft, porous 
