Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/660

 form of the hoofs, on their texture, on the true or false disposition of the limbs, or on the horse's natural movements.

And in this century, the exaggerated and mistaken notions prevailing with regard to the elastic properties of the foot have done much to perpetuate the mischief. Apparently overlooking the fact, that a large portion of the inferior part of the hoof is closely filled with inelastic bone (the os pedis); that the wings of this bone, which is of a crescent shape, extend to the very extremity of the heels, and that the inflections of the wall, termed the bars, are attached to the inner face of these wings, it has yet been stoutly maintained that this portion of the foot was largely capable of dilatation and contraction, and that these movements actually occurred during progression. The sole, too, descended and ascended, and the whole inferior surface of the horse's extremity was a wonderfully contrived resilient apparatus, whose freedom must not only be uninterrupted, but facilitated.

Paring the sole until the blood was nearly or quite oozing through, and sometimes applying extreme pressure to the frog, were the means employed to keep the foot in a natural condition; and to prevent the then extremely sensitive sole from being bruised by coming in contact with the shoe, as well as to permit its easy descent, the upper surface of the shoe was bevelled off so as to leave a wide space in this vulnerable region, and the whole strain of the weight and movement thrown on the crust or wall alone.

The result was, that the hoofs, instead of contracting and expanding, as it was erroneously believed they ought