Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/689

 natural condition would suffer injury if anything came in contact with it. Many years' experience of this plane foot-surfaced shoe, in various regions of the globe, and on feet of every kind and quality, have proved the soundness of this view. The foot is brought as near to a state of nature when the greater part of its plantar surface supports the weight of the body, as man can hope to achieve while submitting the horse to an artificial state of existence.

From what has been said, it will be understood that in speaking of a light shoe, a narrow and thin plate of iron was meant. The narrowness of the metal insures a good foot-hold—in this respect imitating the crust,—while its thinness brings the sole, frog, and bars in closer approximation to the ground.

It is a most difficult matter to devise a shoe that will meet every requirement. The heavy draught-horse, doomed to bring into play every muscle while endeavouring to move and drag along an enormous load, must have his feet differently armed to the hunter or race-horse, in which speed is the chief requisite. Taking into account the different character of the horny textures, it is none the less true that the same rule holds good in all with regard to the sole and frog sustaining weight, though in the slow-moving animal it is of less importance, perhaps, than in the lighter and more fleet ones. The massive draught-horse requires toe-and-heel projections on the ground-surface of the shoes to economize his locomotive powers and to aid his impulsive efforts; though his hoofs none the less require the observance of those conservative principles which have been so strongly insisted upon, but