and the quality of the horn coarse. The narrow hoof has a
strongly "cupped" sole, a small frog, nearly perpendicular side walls,
and fine-grained, tough horn.

_Hind hoofs_ are influenced in shape by different directions of their
pasterns much as front feet are. A hind hoof is not round at the toe as
a front hoof is, but is more pointed. Its greatest width is two-thirds
of the way back from toe to heel, the sole is more concave, the heels
relatively wider, and the toe about 10 deg. steeper than in front hoofs.

EXAMINATION PRELIMINARY TO SHOEING.

The object of the examination is to ascertain the direction and position
of the limbs, the shape, character, and quality of the hoofs, the form,
length, position, and wear of the shoe, the number, distribution, and
direction of the nails, the manner in which the hoof leaves the ground,
its line of flight, the manner in which it is set to the ground, and all
other peculiarities, that at the next and subsequent shoeings proper
allowances may be made and observed faults corrected. The animal must,
therefore, be observed both at rest and in motion.

At rest, the observer should stand in front and note the slant of the
long pasterns. Do they drop perpendicularly, or slant downward and
outward (base-wide foot), or downward and inward (base-narrow foot)?
Whatever be the direction to the long pastern, an imaginary line passing
through its long axis, when prolonged to the ground, should apparently
pass through the middle of the toe. But if such line cuts through the
inner toe the foot-axis is not straight, as it should be, but is broken
inward at the coronet, an indication that either the outer wall of the
hoof is too long (high) or that the inner wall is too short (low). On
the contrary, if the center line of the long pastern falls through the
outer toe the foot-axis is broken outward at the coronet, an indication
that either the inner wall is too long or the outer wall too short.

The observer should now place himself at one side, two or three paces
distant, in order to view the limb and hoof in profile. Note the size of
the hoof in relation to the height and weight of the animal, and the
obliquity of the hoof. Is the foot-axis straight--that is, does the long
pastern have the same slant as the toe, or does the toe of the hoof
stand steeper than the long pastern (fig. 6c)? In which case the
foot-axis is broken forward at the coronet, an indication, usually, that
the quarters a