Rational Horse-Shoeing | Page 3

a broad, heavy piece of iron, covering not only the
wall but a portion of the sole also, thus putting it out of the power of
the horse to take a natural, elastic step.
In a short time the hoof, unbraced by the sole and bars, begins to
contract, the action of the frog upon the ground, which in the natural
foot is threefold--acting as a cushion to receive the force of the blow
and thus relieve the nerves and joints of the leg from concussion,
opening and expanding the hoof by its upward pressure, quickening the
circulation and thereby stimulating the natural secretions,--this all
important part of the organization, without which there is no foot and
no horse, becomes hard, dry, and useless. Then follows the whole train
of natural consequences. The delicate system of joints inclosed in the
hoof feel the pressure of contraction, the knees bend forward in an
attempt to relieve the contracted heel. In this action the use of the leg is
partially lost. The horse endeavors to secure a new bearing, interferes in
movement, or stands in uneasy torture.
Nature frequently seeks relief by bursting the dry and contracted shell,
in what is known as quarter or toe crack, and the miserable victim
becomes practically useless at an age when his powers should be in
their prime.
Every horseman will acknowledge that his experience has a parallel in
the picture here presented. Many men have at various times attempted
reform, but the difficulty heretofore encountered has been that the
mechanical application was in the hands, not of the owners and
reasoners, but in those of a class of men who are, for the most part,
ignorant, prejudiced, and, consequently, apt to oppose any innovation
upon the old abuses in which they have had centuries of vested right;
and it was not until the studies of Mr. R. A. Goodenough that there
were brought to bear veterinary knowledge, mechanical skill, and
inventive faculty, to overcome the stolidity and interest which have
been the lions in the way of true reform.

CHAPTER II.
FROG PRESSURE.
That portion of the hoof called the "frog," performs the most important
visible function in the economy of the movement of the horse. It is
intensely vital and vigorous. The greater its exposure and the severer its
exertion, the more strenuous is the action of nature to renew it. It is the
spring at the immediate base of the leg, relieving the nervous system
and joints from the shock of the concussion when the Race Horse
thunders over the course, seeming in his powerful stride to shake the
solid earth itself, and it gives the Trotter the elastic motion with which
he sweeps over the ground noiseless upon its yielding spring, but, if
shod with heavy iron, so that the frog does not reach the ground to
perform its function, his hoofs beat the earth with a force like the
hammers of the Cyclops.
With the facility to error characteristic of the unreasoning, it has been
one of the opinions of grooms and farriers that this callous,
india-rubber-like substance would wear away upon exposure to the
action of the road or pavement, and it has been one of their cherished
practices to set the horse up upon iron, so that he could by no
possibility strike the frog upon the ground.
In addition to this violation of nature, they pare away the exfoliating
growth of the organ, and trim it into the shape that suits their fancy.
Without action, muscular life is impossible, the portion of the body
thus situated must die, paralyzed or withered. Motion, use, are the law
of life, and the frog of the horse's hoof with a function as essential and
well-defined as any portion of his body is subject to the general law.
Without use it dries, hardens, and becomes a shelly excrescence upon a
foot, benumbed by the percussion of heavy iron upon hard roads. This
is a loss nature struggles in vain to repair, the horse begins to fail at
once. The elastic step, which in a state of nature spurned the dull earth,
becomes heavy and stiff, and the unhappy brute experiences the evils
partially described in the previous chapter.

To restore the natural action of the foot by putting the bearing on the
frog, is the chief object of the system we advocate, and the
Goodenough shoe is designed especially to provide for that first and
last necessity. If this is accomplished with a sound horse, he will avoid
the thousand ills that arise from the usual method, and, so far as his feet
are concerned, he will remain sound.
If the shoe is adopted as a cure for the unsoundness already manifested
in animals that have been deprived of the proper use of