Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/687

 carefully kept out of sight, or altogether overlooked; and yet we cannot forget that it has a great influence on the wear of the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints. It is the fashion to say that a horse always travels better in his old shoes, and to attribute this to the fact that he is not pinched in them. Ascribing something to this circumstance, though if the horse's hoofs had not been mutilated by the knife and rasp, he would probably, or rather ought not to feel pinched, we must also take into account that a good portion of the superfluous and fatiguing weight has been got rid of by wear.

It is worth noting the changes that take place on the ground-face of a heavy shoe on the foot of a riding-horse during a long day's journey. How in the morning we have the indications of muscular freshness and activity,—the agile step and due flexure of the articulations, putting their impress on a certain part of the metal; towards midday a change of bearing and point of friction testifying to muscular fatigue and heavier attrition; and in the afternoon, unmistakable symptoms of dragging the feet and leg-weariness.

So that in hygienic shoeing, we have a perfect right to insist that not a grain of iron more than is absolutely necessary to protect the crust from undue wear, or serve a useful purpose, be applied to the foot. Every particle beyond this is not only unnecessary, but injurious. Nature, in constructing the animal-machine, and enduing it with powers to sustain the ordinary requirements of organization, and even certain extraordinary demands, could scarcely have been expected to provide the large additional amount of energy necessary to swing backwards