HEELS NARROW
—is a defect, or inconvenience, to which HORSES are constantly subject; but they are produced much more by the officious obtrusions of ART, than any deficiency in the original formation of NATURE. Horses with narrow heels are generally those who have had very little attention paid to the state of the feet, by either MASTER or man, during the operation of SHOEING; and where the journeyman smith too often, from absolute idleness, affixes a shoe too narrow to the FOOT, and then, to increase the injury, reduces the FOOT to the dimensions of the shoe.
This grievance is much easier prevented than remedied; for when once a destruction of parts has been inconsiderately occasioned, a REGENERATION may not be easily obtained. The cruel and invincible practice of applying the hot shoe to the FOOT (by way of fitting it) during the act of shoeing, contributes in no small degree to the contraction of the heel; and when this injury is once sustained, great care and constant attention become necessary to solicit a renovation. Whether it has been occasioned by the fatal operation of the cutting-knife, the fashionable back-stroke friction of the rasp, or the fiery effect of the hot shoe when conveyed from the FORGE to the foot, the direct road to relief is precisely the same: nightly stopping with any applicable composition calculated to mollify the bottom of the hoof, and to promote its expansion, with a plentiful impregnation of sperma-cæti oil daily, are the only sure and certain means by which the heels can be restored to their original and proper formation.