Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/515

 necessary to preserve the soles, may travel without shoes; and without going for an example to the Arabs, Tartars, etc., we will find it among our own horses, which, in the country, work every day without requiring shoes; but as soon as our wisdom and skill is brought to bear in hollowing out the foot to the quick and making a fine, equal, and symmetrical frog—doing it well and properly, as we say in France, shoes become indispensably necessary.

'I therefore ask all amateur horsemen to insure their horses as much as they can against this pretended perfection. It may be asked, what will become of the horny sole if it is never pared, and it may be feared that by its growth the foot will become overgrown. Not at all; for in proportion to its growth it dries, becomes flaky, and falls off in layers.

'The compressions so dangerous, which cause inflammation, would no more be dreaded if we left the horn of the sole, the bars, and the frog entire. By their pliability, thickness, flexibility, texture, and the situation they occupy, they appear to be solely destined by nature to serve as a defence to the vascular sole, as the frog particularly acts as a cushion to the tendo achillis—all being disposed to obviate shock on paved roads, or injury from a stone, splinter, etc.

'It is necessary to be convinced of another fact: this is, that it is rare that a horse goes at his ease, and is not promptly fatigued, if the frog does not touch the ground. As it is the only point of support, if you raise it from the ground by paring it, there arises an inordinate extension of the tendon, caused by the pushing of the coronary