Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/576

 beautiful feet should be reduced to the same morbid state as those which had been ruined—though he did not suspect so—by paring, and could 'barely support the coffin-bone in its proper place, and offers at best but a feeble resistance to its downward tendency.' 'Perfect feet, or indeed tolerably well-formed feet, with a fair growth of horn, should have the toe shortened, the heels lowered, ''and the sole well pared out; that is, all the dead horn removed, and, if need be, some of the living too, until it will yield in some small degree to hard pressure from the thumb. The corners, formed by the junction of the crust and bars, should be well pared out, particularly on the inside, for this is the common seat of corn; and any accumulation of horn in this situation must increase the risk of bruising the sensible sole between the inner point or heel of the coffin-bone and the horny sole''' A most extraordinary statement, certainly. We are told that horn protected the feet at one season of the year, but was not needed at another. We are now informed that an accumulation of horn at the corners of the heels would bruise them, and that therefore these corners must be well denuded of their protection.

Beside this damaging treatment of the foot, the bars were to be removed to a level with the sole. The single feature in this portion of his subject that redeemed it from the ordinary barbarous treatment of the farrier, was his earnest desire that the frog might remain untouched; and this is the only good that commends itself in his work, unless it be the diminution of the number of nails required to attach the shoe.

We have seen that he deprives the sole of its natural protection in the most unreasonable manner, merely