Page:Horses and roads.djvu/74

 58 india-rubber the shape of the foot surface, and the horse went better—in fact, went on the road as if he were on the soft. But I had to leave them off, because the shoes were always coming off. To be sure of their merits, I tried them on another horse; the result was just the same. I should say that the hoof grows very fast when shod with these cushions.’ Why did the hoof grow fast with them? Why, because they caused sole pressure continually; there was no possible ‘stopping’ with cowdung whilst they were worn.

The want of sole pressure, conjointly with the weakening of the crust, when its inner and outer layers (the sensitive and the insensitive) have become diseased through rough and barbarous treatment, and show a tendency to separate, often brings about pumice foot. Pressure on the unpared sole, in imitation of Nature, is the proper treatment to effect its cure. Imitation of Nature should be the universal law of shoeing. St. Bell says: ‘No one will venture to deny that, in the affair of shoeing, reason directs us to a close imitation of Nature.’ The closest imitation of Nature that has ever yet been arrived at is the Charlier tip—‘it gives great security for travelling over the most slippery roads, granite, or asphalte pavements; and, in frosty weather, no roughing is necessary.’ This is accounted for by the fact that by this system the whole of the bottom of the foot, excepting the groove made for the insertion of the shoe, is left entirely untouched by the knife; and the dense,