CAUSE OF CORNS IN THE HORSE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1715, 11 January 1905, Page 69

CAUSE OF CORNS IN THE HORSE

Mr W. 11. Anderson, in an article in the ‘OEEorsebreeders’ Journal,” says that corns are caused by contraction of the coronary band. This contraction, he say®, is not necessarily the result of bad shoeing, but is caused by anything that exerts an undue pressure cn the wing of the coffin bone. The foot need not be pinched up narrow and contracted out of shape, but the* contraction may have come from an injury or it may be that the bones in the foot are too large for the outside horn, in which case there is too much pressure on the wing and corns result. Mr Anderson has given this subject careful thought and study during an experience of twenty-five years, and he finds that as a rule corns are due to contraction rather than anything else. As the foot grows down the pressure on the wing of the coffin bone is so great that it causes the rupture of small blood vessels, and as the hoof grows down the congested blood grows down with it, and the result is a corn, for a corn is nothing more than a spot, of congested or inflamed blood. The owner in inclined to lay all the blame for the presence, of corns cn a horse’s feet to the shoes, but Mr Anderson finds that the causes which produce these are too numerous to* mention, and that of these improper shoeing is hut one. One cause is leaving the shoes on too long. After a shoe has been on a foot three or four weeks the foot lias grown and spread out. as far as it is possible to go with the slice on. It does not stop growing, however, but instead cf growing outside, as it should, it grows down and narrow ; then there is contraction and corns.

There seems to be no complete cu?*e for corns, but there are many different i-emedies, such as bar shoes, side .calks, rubber and leather padls, tar and oakum, butter and antimony, tb.ermofuge, and poultices. The best tiling, according to Mr Anderson’s thinking, is the Caesar Fashi tip, invented in the fifteenth century. It gives the horse all the advantages of being barefooted, but he has the tee and quarters protected from wear of the tip. A good way to use the tip is to thin the inside quarter of the hoof in the region of wing of coffin hone from coronary band down to near bottom of wall, then adjust the tip and blister the band so* as to start a new rapid growth of wall. It is best to do this in the fall, when it is convenient, and by spring the horse will have a very fair looking foot.