At this stage, perhaps, the whole condition has become aggravated by a foul discharge from the place originally occupied by the frog, and the foot, especially in the region of the heels, has become hot and tender—­really a form of local and subacute laminitis.

The long-continued inflammation, although only of a low type, renders the horn of the hoof hard and dry, and only with difficulty will the ordinary foot instruments cut it.  This in its turn leads to cracks and fissures in various places, but more especially in the bars and what is left of the frog.  Often, too, cracks will appear in the horn of the quarters, and a troublesome and incurable form of sand-crack results.

An animal with contraction advanced as far as this, especially if confined to one foot, goes unmistakably lame.  With both feet affected, he ordinarily starts out from the stable in a manner that is commonly called ‘groggy.’  In other words, the gait is uncertain, and feeling; and stumbling is frequent.  Anyone who has had the misfortune to drive an animal with feet in this condition knows full well that every little irregularity in the road at once makes itself felt to the feet, and that the animal, as time goes on, learns to carefully avoid any suspicious-looking group of stones he may see.  To drive an animal like this is to keep one’s self continually on tenter-hooks, for, sooner or later, the inevitable happens, and the animal comes down.

Up to now we have described the changes of form in the hoof as seen when the contracted foot is viewed from the solar surface.  With those changes as evident as we have depicted them, there will be no difficulty in detecting the alterations in the form of the wall.

In addition to a narrowing from side to side there will be noticed an abnormal straightness of the quarters, with a turning in, more or less sudden, of the heels.  This effect is given in these cases by the smith maintaining the shoe of a length and width that should normally fit a foot of that particular animal’s size and substance.  This is probably done with the idea of deceiving anyone examining the solar surface.  Viewed from this position, the width of the shoe at the heels gives the impression that it is attached to a foot of normal breadth.  This deception is heightened if at the same time has been practised the process of ‘opening up the heels.’  That expression indicates that the bars have been removed, and the lateral lacunae of the frog made to continue the concavity of the sole.  The arch of the latter is thus made to appear of much greater extent than it really is, and the heels, by reason of their being abruptly cut off when removing the bars, also convey the false impression of being wide apart.

The practitioner unversed in the tricks of the forge will best guard against this by viewing the foot, while on the ground, from behind.  From that position he will be able to detect the lowness of the quarters, and the projecting portion of the shoe, that the hoof, by reason of its sudden bending inwards, does not touch.