CAUSE OF CORNS IN THE HORSE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2675, 21 June 1905, Page 54

CAUSE OF CORNS IN THE HORSE.

I Mr W. H. Anderson, in an article in the Horses-hoars' Journal, says that corns are caused by contraction of the coronary band. This contraction, he says, is not necessarily the result of bad shoeing, but is caused by anything that exerts an undue pressure on 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 ease 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 25 years, and he finds that • as a rule corns are due to contraction rather than anything else. As the foot grows down the pre_ssure in 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. I for a corn is nothing more than a spot of I congested or inflamed blood. The owner is j inclined to lay all the blame for the presence of corns on a horse's feet to the , shoes, but Mr Anderson finds that the causes which produce these are too numej rous to mention, and thaff of these improper shoeing is but one. One cause is ' leaving a shoe on too long. After a shoe has been on a foot three or four weeks , the foot has grown and spread out as far ! a^ it is possible to go with the shoe en. | It does not stop growing, however, but ■ instead of growing outside, as it should 1 , it grows down and narrow; then there is contraction and corns. There seems to be no complete cure for corns, but there are many different remedies, such as bar shoes, side caulks, rubber and leather pads, tar and oakum, butter and antimony, thcrmofuge, and poultices. The best thing, 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 toe and quarters protected from wear of the tip. A good way to use the tip is lo thin the inside quarter of the hoof in the region of wine of coffin bone from coro-

! nary 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 tiie fall when it is convenient, and by spring the horse will have a very fair-looking loot.