COMPRESSION
—is a term meant to convey the idea of an injury sustained in the foot of a horse from a contraction of the hoof, more particularly at the heel, by indiscreet management in the mode of shoeing: first, in forming the shoes too narrow, and giving them an improper internal curve at each heel; the injudiciously cutting away the bars of the foot, (formed by nature for its proper expansion;) the rasping away each side of the heel, to make the foot fit the shoe, already put on too small; all which is still more aggravated, by the equally infernal and equally invincible practice of fitting the shoe red-hot to the foot, in opposition to every argument and entreaty, thereby drying up and consuming the natural moisture of the internal or fleshy sole, at the moment of cauterizing and contracting the surface.
A hoof in the state described, holds forth, in its appearance, ample proof of compression upon the parts constituting the internal structure of the foot; the membranous mass, the nut and coffin-bone, thus pressed upon by the surrounding stricture, occasions a torpidity, and consequent defect in action, by no means dissimilar to the hobbling gait of an infant in pain from the tightness and rigidity of new leather shoes. Horses whose feet are thus destructively reduced, are generally those to whom neither MASTER or MAN ever condescends to look: if proper injunctions were laid upon the shoeing smith, at each time of performing the operation, such a scene of devastation could never ensue. When the feet, by such mismanagement, have got into this state, every possible application should be made to promote growth and expansion. If the horse stands constantly in the stable, fresh stopping of moist cow-dung every night, with a plentiful impregnation of spermacæti oil, all round the hoof, every night and morning, are the most expeditious remedies for the defect; but if it can be adopted with convenience, turning out two or three months upon a moist marshy piece of land will prove superior to every other consideration.