In the matter of feeding, too, trouble is likely to ensue.  Particularly is this the case where the colt shows points of exceptional merit.  He is ’got up’ for show, and the feet are likely to fall victims to the mismanagement that frequent exhibition so often carries with it.  An extra allowance of peas, beans, wheat, or other equally injurious food is given.  The result is a severe attack of laminitis, and an otherwise valuable and promising colt is permanently ruined.

Exposed as it is, too, to injury, the foot of a young horse, even at grass, is frequently the seat of injuries from picked up nails, stakes, or other agents which, unless detected and carefully treated, may terminate in a troublesome case of quittor and incurable lameness.

With the passing of colthood, and the coming into effect of the evils of further domestication, the troubles to which the foot is open become more numerous.  Foremost among them will come those having their starting-point in errors of practice originating in the forge; for, in spite of attempts at their education, smiths, as a class, are as yet grievously unversed in even the elementary knowledge of the delicate construction of the member that is entrusted to their care.

This fact has been dilated on in books devoted to shoeing, and in the prefatory note to the last edition of Fleming’s manual on this subject we find the following statement:  ’The records of all humane societies show that, of prosecutions for cruelty to animals, an overwhelming majority refer to the horse; and of these, a large proportion are for working horses while suffering from lameness in one form or other.

’So frequent are such cases that observers have concluded that their prevalence must result from some specific cause, and, not unnaturally, attention has thus been directed to the various modes of management practised in relation to the horse’s foot, to the manner of shoeing, and, in particular, to the way in which the foot is prepared for the shoe.’

It must be remembered, however, that although harm in the forge may frequently arise from culpable roughness or carelessness, such is not necessarily always the case, and that quite as much injury may result from careful and conscientious workmanship when it is unfortunate enough to be based upon principles wrong in themselves to commence with.

It so happens, too, that shoeing, in itself a necessary evil, may be responsible for injuries in the causation of which the smith can have played no part.  Take, for example, the ill effects following upon the animal’s attendant allowing him to carry his shoes for too long a time.  In this case the natural growth of the horn carries the heel of the shoe further beneath the foot than is safe for a correct bearing; in fact, anterior to the point of inflection of the wall.  The shoe, at the same time, is greatly thinned from excessive wear.  Result, a sharp and easily-bended piece of iron situate immediately under the seat of corn.  Pressure or actual cutting of the sole is bound to occur, and the animal is lamed.