Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/536

 in general with excessive heavy and clumsy, ill-shaped shoes, and very many nails, to the total destruction of the foot. The cramps (French crampon, Anglice calkin) they annex tend to destroy the bullet (fetlock—Fr. boulet),and the shoes, made in the shape of a walnut-shell, prevent the horse's walking upon the firm basis which God has given him for that end, and thereby oblige him to stumble and fall. They totally pare away, also, and lay bare the inside of the animal's foot with their detestable butteris, and afterwards put on very long shoes, whereby the foot is hindered from having any pressure at all upon the heels, which pressure might still perchance, notwithstanding their dreadful cutting, keep the heels properly open, and the foot in good order.'

Mr Clark informs us that, in his day, horses in the North and West parts of Scotland, and in Wales, went always without shoes, and 'performed all manner of work without any detriment to their hoofs, which, from being accustomed to go bare, and rubbing or touching frequently against hard bodies, like the hands of a labouring man, they acquire a callousness and obduracy which greatly adds to their firmness.' In Prussia, too, it was only customary to shoe them on the fore-feet. 'In Germany they use thick, heavy, strong shoes, with three cramps or caukers, one on each heel and one on the toe of the shoe.'

In describing the anatomy of the foot, he explains that 'in the middle of the frog is a longitudinal cleft or opening, by which the heels have a small degree of contraction and expansion at every tread which the horse makes upon the ground;' and, speaking of the hoof, he