One Cause for Lame Horses

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 34, 17 September 1891, Page 3

One Cause for Lame Horses

A curious mistake, common among ■blacksmiths, was pointed out to me recently by a practising veterinary surgeon to whom I took a horse that had become lame gradually, with considerable heat in the feet. He drew -attention to the fact that most farriers, being right-handed, unintentionally lower the left side of the foot more than the right side, As a result othe pastern does not set quite, evenly •on the coffin' bone, . or the bone suspended inside the wall of the hoof, and in time the concussion of the foot on the street produces' soreness in the joint which could not exist if the foot were level. A trifle out of joint, so t« speak, the foot at night cannot repair the injury received or the fatigue of the day; it gradually gets feverish •and then tender, and the horse is •suddenly seen to limp. I have noticed this in hundred of cases. The lameness disappears in a few days if the •cause be removed by leveling up the loot caiefully. A person will ex- " T>erience the same difficulty in his ■ankle if he wear for a few days a boot -that is run over at the heel. The soreness will cot be so pronounced for "two reasons : the boot is not worn nor «tood upon during nights, and le ither furnishes more of a cushion thau iron -when brought in contact with the .- Neither man nor horse is per manently injured unless fche faulty •conditions continue. How such an error, almost linnoticeable, should be bo frequently committed is easily understood When it is seen how much • iaster the knife removes the horn while being drawn than pushed. The ahoer lifts the foot and dra-rs the knife toward' himself on the by mm of what is then the right side, but which is really the left of the hoof, as his hack is toward the horse's head. To pare the left (right) side of the hoof is more difficult or unhandy and it is as a consequence, left thicker. The " horse's forefeet are so constructed that if they must turn over, to turn out is less hurtfuLthan to turn in; hence, the first indication of lameness from this cause is, usually noticeable in the right foot, the left side of that foot being the lower, thus inclining it to roll in. The lesson is hire competent iarriers, and be sure to k^ep the horse's feet level from side to side as well as front and rear — American Agriculturalist.