Again, apart from the question of negligence or otherwise on the part of the smith or the animal’s attendant, it must be remembered that the nailing on to the foot of a plate of iron is not giving to the animal an easier means of progression.  The reverse is the case.  In place of the sucker-like face of the natural horn is substituted a smooth, and, with wear, highly-polished surface.  Slipping and sliding attempts to gain a foothold become frequent, and strains of the tendons and ligaments follow in their wake.

As, however, this treatise is not intended to deal with the art of shoeing, the reader must be referred to other works for further information.  In addition to Fleming’s, there may be mentioned, among others, Hunting’s ’Art of Horse Shoeing,’ and the very excellent volume of Messrs. Dollar and Wheatley on the same subject.  Leaving the forge, we may next look to the nature of the animal’s work, and the conditions under which he is kept, for active causes in the production of disorders of the foot.  From the yielding softness of the pasture he is called to spend the bulk of his time upon the hard macadamized tracks of our country roads, or the still more hard and more dangerous asphalt pavings or granite sets of our towns.  The former, with the bruises they will give the sole and frog from loose and scattered stones, and the latter, with the increased concussion they will entail on the limb, are active factors in the troubles with which we are about to deal.  Upon these unyielding surfaces the horse is called to carry slowly or rapidly, as the case may be, not only his own weight, but, in addition, is asked to labour at the hauling of heavy loads.  The effects of concussion and heavy traction combined are bound primarily to find the feet, and such diseases as side-bones, ringbones, corns, and sand-cracks commence to make their appearance.

Again, as opposed to the comparative healthiness of the surroundings when at grass, consideration must be given to the chemical changes the foot is frequently subjected to when the animal is housed.

Only too often the bedding the animal has to stand upon for several hours of the twenty-four can only be fitly described as ‘filthy in the extreme.’  The ammoniacal exhalations from these collected body-discharges must, and do, have a prejudicial effect upon the nature of the horn, and, though slow in its progress, mischief is bound sooner or later to occur in the shape of a weakened and discharging frog, with its concomitant of contracted heels.  Lucky it is in such a case if canker does not follow on.

Observers, too, have chronicled the occurrence in horse’s feet of disease resulting from the use of moss litter.  Tenderness in the foot is first noticeable, which tenderness is afterwards followed by a peculiar softening of the horn of the sole and the frog.  What should be a dense, fairly resilient substance is transformed into a material affording a yielding sensation to the fingers not unlike that imparted by a soft indiarubber, and as easily sliced as cheese-rind.