_Definition_.--False quarter is the term applied to that condition of the
horn of the quarter in which, owing to disease or injury of the coronet,
the wall is grown in a manner that is incomplete.

_Symptoms_.--This condition of the foot appears as a gap or shallow
indentation, narrow or wide, in the thickness of the wall, with its length
in the direction of the horn fibres. By this we do not mean that the
sensitive laminae are bared and exposed. Horn of a sort there is, and with
this the sensitive structures are covered. Running down the centre of the
incomplete horn is usually a narrow fissure marking the line of separation
in the papillary layer of the coronary cushion, which, as we shall later
see, is responsible for the malformation.

On either side of the indentation, as if wishing to aid further than
ordinarily it should in bearing the body-weight, the horn takes on an
increased growth, and stands above the level of the horn surrounding it. It
may, as perhaps it really is, be regarded as a form of hypertrophy, brought
about by the increased work that the loss of substance in the region of the
false quarter puts upon it.

So long as the sensitive structures are protected the animal remains sound.
Sometimes, however, from the effects of concussion or of the body-weight, a
fissure appears in the narrow veneer of horn that covers them. Into this,
which, of course, is but a form of sand-crack, gravel and dirt penetrate,
and so set up inflammatory changes in the keratogenous membrane. As a
result suppuration ensues, and the animal is lame.

_Causes_.--False quarter may result from any disease of the foot that
involves destruction of a portion of the coronary cushion. As we may see
from a reference to Chapter III., it is from the papillae of this body that
the horn tubules of the wall are secreted. Destruction of any portion of it
necessarily results in a corresponding loss of horn in that position. The
disease occasioning this more often than any other is perhaps quittor. It
may also result from suppurating corn, from a severe tread or overreach, or
from the effects of a slowly progressing suppurating coronitis.

_Treatment_.--A radical treatment of false quarter is not to be found. Once
destruction of the secreting layer of the coronary cushion has occurred,
the appearance of the fissure in the wall will always have to be reckoned
with. A false quarter, therefore, not only renders the horse liable to
occasional la