Page:Horses and roads.djvu/93

 Rh sole is always concave; and it might be supposed that it cannot possibly receive any pressure from a flat shoe. But when a horse is exerting himself, either in galloping or drawing burdens, the sudden action of the animal’s weight causes the laminae to gradually lengthen, and suffer the coffin bone to press on the sole; its concavity and elasticity allow it to descend and expand, and that gradual yielding must materially endanger the sole by a violent contact with the shoe, were it made otherwise than hollow.’

This theory is untenable. The sole cannot in a sound foot descend round the edge. As to the shoe which he recommends for ordinary use, it was certainly recommended a century ago by Osmer; but Professor Coleman was the first to turn the shoe over, and leave the flat surface against the hoof, and the bevelled, or seated, surface on the ground. And this is the prevailing pattern since then advocated. It is, perhaps, the best of the two; but neither of them has the claims of the Charlier tip to simplicity, and a near approach to a natural foot. The Charlier shoe, the same as the tip, is only a quarter of an inch in thickness and half an inch in width for a horse of average size, and the full-sized shoe weighs only a third of what an ordinary plain shoe, without calks, will weigh; and this makes eleven or twelve ounces difference on each foot, if the whole shoe be worn, and more in the case of tips. Youatt tells us that ‘an ounce or two in the weight of the shoe will sadly tell before the end of a hard day’s