THE EXTERNAL CONFORMATION OF THE HORSE. 
49 1 
much attention. We hear the expression “no foot no horse” 
wherever we go, showing in some measure that a good foot is 
held in high esteem by all admirers of a well formed animal, and 
a horse with a badly formed one is often dubbed a plug or a 
screw in the stable lore of the present age. 
The expression is so common that we have endeavored to 
trace its origin, but have failed to discover the exact source 
from which it came, so we have concluded that from its being 
such an old saying it must have originated long before iron 
shoes were used, and in those days people did a large part of 
their traveling upon horseback; under such circumstances, with 
an unshod horse, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that 
the horse’s hoof would wear out on a long journey, and the 
creature soon become tender as well as lame and eventually 
unable to travel; the rider would naturally look for the cause of 
the animal’s inability to progress in the usual way, and on ex- 
