,0'^ k'i 
 
 JOHNA.SEAVERNS 
 
TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 3 9090 013 407 008 
 
 Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine 
 Cummings School of Veterinary IVIediclne at 
 Tufts University 
 200 Westboro Road 
 North Grafton, MA 01 536 
 
THE 
 
 ART OF HORSE-SHOEING 
 
 A MANUAL FOR FARRIERS 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HUNTING, F.R.C.V.S. 
 
 Editor of The Veterinary Record, 
 
 Ex-President of the Royal Ci>Ue(je of Veterinary Surgeons. 
 
 Member of the Committee for National Registration of Farriers. 
 
 WITH NEARLY ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 American Edition. 
 Revised and enlarged hy the Aiitlwr. 
 
 NF,W YORK 
 WILLIAM R, JENKINS 
 
 851 <fe 853 i^iXTH Avenue 
 
Copyright, 1898, by William R. Jenkins. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 PRINTED BY THE 
 
 PRESS OF William R. Jenkins, 
 New York. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 This little book is written for three classes of readers: 
 for horse-owners who may interest themselves in the 
 subject, for farriers who are open to conviction, and for 
 veterinary students who have to be examined. 
 
 The method joursued lias been, to first describe the 
 form and action of the foot, next the preparation of the 
 foot for shoeing. Then the form of a shoe is treated of 
 and the details to be observed in making it. The selec- 
 tion of shoes for varieties of feet or for special kinds of 
 work follows, and aftei"wards the fitting and nailing-ou 
 are considered. Other chapters are devoted to "roughing," 
 shoeing defective feet, accidents, the use of leathers and 
 pads. 
 
 Throughout an endeavor has been made to be as 
 simple and clear as possible in expression, to lay down 
 correct general i)rinciples and to point out the technical 
 details which are essential to good shoeing. On all theso 
 points authorities are not agreed, and I trust those who 
 differ from me will pardon any too dogmatic expressions 
 of opinion in these pages. 
 
 The illustrations will be of assistance in making 
 clear the text. Some of tliese are copied from books, 
 some are drawn from models or preparations, and some 
 are diagramatic. The books I am indebted to are: 
 "Anatomy of the Domestic Animals," by Gamgee and 
 Law; " On the Horse's Foot," by Bracy Clark; Bouley^s 
 " Atlas of the Foot, ' ' r.nd Goyau's ' ' Mar^chalerie. " i 
 
 Above all, I am indebted to the late Professor JosepH 
 Gamgee, who first gave me an interest in horse-shoeing 
 and to whose teachings and writings I trace whatever 
 ideas I now possess. 
 
 William Hunting. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap, Page. 
 
 II. — Form and Action of thp: Foot. 5 
 
 The hoof. The sensitive foot, growth and wear of hoof. 
 The bones, cartilage -i, paxs and vessels. Action of the 
 foot, expansion and contraction, function of the frog. 
 The natuird bearing-surface. 
 
 III. — Preparation of Hoop for Shoeing . 30 
 
 Bearing -surface for shoe. Proportions of foot, height of 
 heel, length of toe, treatment of sole and frog. Faults to 
 be avoided. 
 
 IV. — Foals and Unshod Feet 48 
 
 V. — The Form and Manufacture of Shoes o 50 
 
 Material, weijrht, thickness, width. The foot-aurface of 
 shoes. The ground -jiarface-s. Calkins, nails and nail'" 
 holes. Machine-made shoes. Prepared bar-irou. 
 
 VI. — Selection of a Shoe 69 
 
 For varieties of horse and work. 
 
 VII. — Fitting and Application of Shoes.... o 73 
 
 Level or adjusted form. Outline fittip^-. sur^.-ve^fitting. 
 Clips, hot and cold fitting. Tii),i, The Clmrlur system. 
 
 VIII. — On Roughing 90 
 
 Necessity for e\'ilsof. Frost-niiils, ordinary " ro'jghing." 
 Movable steel sharps, steel screw ijh;u\i^!^. 
 
 IX.— Injuries Resulting from Shoeing...... 9S 
 
 From nails, from the clip, from the shoo. " Corns," 
 "burnt sole." " Treads " " Cuttni^; or brushing," 
 "Over-reaching." " apeedy-cut," "Forj^ing or clacking." 
 
 X. — Shoeing Bad Feet .....,„ loa 
 
 Flat feet, convex eoles, broken, feet, 
 
 XI. — Leather and Rubber Pads 117 
 
 Plain leather, ring-leathers, frog-pads. The pneumatic 
 pad, tLc wedge-pad, the bar-pad. 
 
 XII.— Shoeing Competitions . . . » 123 
 
THE 
 
 ART OF HORSE^SHOEING 
 
 A MANUAL FOR FARRIERS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Farriery is the art of shoeing horses, and can only 
 "be properly learned by a long practical experience in the 
 shoeing-forge. If the foot of the horse were not a living 
 object perhaps the training obtained in the forge would 
 be all that was necessary for efficient workmanship. As, 
 however, the hoof is constantly growing, it is constantly 
 changing its form. The duty of a farrier therefore is 
 not merely to fix a shoe upon the hoof but to reduce the 
 hoof to proper proportions before doing so. Now, as the 
 hoof is only the outer covering of a complex and sensi- 
 tive foot, damage to the exterior surface may injure the 
 structures within. Injury does frequently result, and 
 not always from carelessness. Perhaps as much injury 
 follows careful work, based upon wrong principles, as 
 slovenly work carried out in perfect ignorance of any 
 principle. The injury to feet resulting from shoeing 
 may not be apparent at once. It may be, and often is, 
 of a slow and gradual nature, and not credited to its true 
 cause until the horse is rendered an incurable cripple. 
 
 It seems evident then that to do justice to a horse a 
 farrier should not only possess manipulative skill, but 
 should have a correct idea of the structures and functions 
 of the foot, as well as a thorough knowledge of the form, 
 and variations of the hoof. 
 
2 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 Few persons appreciate the importance of horse- 
 shoeing, whilst a small number tell us it is unnecessary. 
 Here and there au enthusiast has the courage of his con- 
 victions and is able, for a time, to exhibit animals doing 
 work without shoes. In some countries horses are regu- 
 larly ridden with no addition to their natural hoof, but 
 in such places the surface over which the animals travel 
 is grass land. In all civilized countries where good roads 
 exist shoeing is practised. The gentleman with a fad 
 who occasionally ajjpears in England with unshod horses 
 at work is an unconscious impostor. He sets his little 
 experience against the common sense and universal prac- 
 tice of others. No man of business would pay for 
 shoeing if he could do without it. The ' ' shoeless " 
 experiment has been tried over and over again, but 
 always with the same result — a return to shoeing. In 
 dry weather tho hoof becomes hard, and it is wcmderf ul 
 how much wear it will then stand on the hardest of 
 roads. In wet weather the hoof becomes soft, and then 
 the friction on hard roads soon prohibits work without 
 shoes. If work be persisted in, under such circum- 
 stances, the hoof rapidly wears away and lameness 
 results. Persons trying to prove a pre-conceived theory 
 meet this difficulty by resting the horse until the horn 
 grows, but business men who keep horses for work in all 
 weathers can afford no such luxury. Shoeing has been 
 called "a necessary evil." The phrase is a misuse of 
 words, for there is no necessary evil about it. Of course 
 it is no more free from accident than other operations, 
 but its evils are fairly described as accidents, whilst its 
 benefits are fully apparent. Without shoes horses at 
 work would be more often lame than with them; without 
 shoes horses could not do half the work they do with 
 them, and so we need not further discuss the necessity 
 of shoeing. 
 
 The value of horse-shoeing depends upon the manner 
 in which it is done. Very seldom does the owner of 
 horses appreciate the quality of the work. As a rule the 
 price charged, or the distance from the forge to the 
 stable, regulates the choice of a farrier. Not having any 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 pecuniary interest in the trade, I may say that such mat- 
 ters should not be allowed to decide between one farrier 
 and another. A bad workman may do an injury at one 
 shoeing which will cost the owner of the horse more 
 than would pay ten times over the difference between 
 his charges and the higher prices of a better man. 
 
 Many years ago I knew a firm who changed their 
 farrier and system of shoeing for a cheaper plan. The 
 cost for shoeing alone was decreased by $375 in the year, 
 but the cost of horse-flesh rose in that year more than 
 6500. The old saw — " that for w^ant of a nail the shoe 
 was lost, for want of a shoe the hor.se vv'-as lost, and for 
 want of a horse the man was lost," has been illustrated 
 times without number. Few persons, however, are 
 iiware of the terrible consequences which have more than 
 once attended neglect in the shoeing of horses. iSTapo- 
 leoji's retreat from Moscow depended for most of its 
 hardships and horrors upon the simple fact that his 
 lior^s were not shod properly for travelling on snow and 
 ioe. The horses could not keep their feet, and were 
 unable to drag the guns and v/agous, which had to be 
 abandoned. Daring the Fra-ncoPrussian war, Bour- 
 baki'g retrea.t became a confused rout from a similar 
 cause. In civil life no winter passes without injury and 
 death to hundreds of horses from the same neglect. 
 These are instances that anyone can see; but heavy 
 losses due to bad shoeing are constant from other and less 
 evident evils — from the adoption of wrong methods and 
 the practice of erroneous theorit-s. 
 
 The farrier has not Ixvan fairly treated by the public. 
 His practical knowledge has been ignored, he has been 
 instructed by amateurs in all sorts of theories, and 
 coerced into carrying out practices for ilie untoward 
 resrJts of which he has been blamed. The natural conse- 
 quence of all this has been that the art of farriery 
 degenerated, and tlie farrier was forced into a position 
 d^istractive to the self-respect of any craftsman. In no 
 other trade do persons entirely ignorant of the business 
 presume to direct and dictate as to how the work should 
 b)e done. No one presumes to instruct the watch-maker 
 
4 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 or bell-hanger as to the details of his craft, but the far- 
 rier has been compelled to take his instructions from all 
 sorts and conditions of men. 
 
 Only in recent years has the man who shoes horses 
 been allowed to know something of his calling. Various 
 causes have acted in putting an end to the state of dis- 
 cord, and the trade is now entering upon a brighter 
 time. The Worshipful Company of Farriers — one of 
 those ancient City Guilds which had survived their 
 original vocation and usefulness — has wakened up, and 
 is striving to resume its proper function as the head and 
 director of the trade over which it ought to preside. 
 Agricultural Societies have also taken the matter up, 
 and fostered a health^'- emulation amongat farriers by 
 instituting practical competitions at their shows. Vete- 
 rinary Surgeons have devoted considerable research to 
 the elucidation of the anatomy and physiology of the 
 foot, and many old errors have been corrected. School 
 Boards have made the present generation of farriers able 
 and willing to supplement their practice by a study of 
 pnnciples. We have, in fact, arrived at a time when 
 everyone interested seems inclined to recognize the 
 importance of the art and its technical difficulties, and 
 when no one has a brand new infallible discovery wliich 
 alone can save the horse and guide the farrier. 
 
 My object in writing is not to suggest anything new, 
 "but to point out the general principles upon which the 
 art is based, and to indicate those details which are 
 essential to success, and those which are to be avoided if 
 soundness and duration of service are recognized as true 
 economy in a stud of horses. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Form and Action of the Foot. 
 
 The foot of a horse consists of a variety of living 
 structures, differing in form and texture, and enclosed i-i 
 a horny covering called the hoof. Although the farrier's 
 work is applied only to the hoof, it is necessary that he 
 should know something of the whole foot, because it is 
 but too easy to injure the structures within by altera- 
 tions of the horny covering without. 
 
 The simplest way to understand the foot is to study 
 separately the different parts, and to apply that know- 
 ledge in obtaining a general idea of the relations of all 
 the parts to each other. There is not, then, much diffi- 
 culty in appreciating the functions of each part, and the 
 uses and action of the v;'hole organ. 
 
 The Ilcof. 
 
 Everyone is familiar with the general appearance of 
 the hoof. It is not a regular geometrical figure. Each 
 of the four feet of the horse shows some peculiarity in 
 form, by which a farrier can at once identify a fore from 
 a hind or a left from a right. 
 
 The fore feet should be similar in size and shape. 
 Disease may be suspected when any marked difference 
 exists. But a healthy hoof Avhich has been broken, or 
 much rasped, does not retain its proper form, and may 
 thus confuse a novice. 
 
 The hind feet should be proportionate in size to the 
 fore, and then it is not of much practical consequence 
 whether the whole are large or small. 
 
 The front feet are rounder and less pointed at the toe 
 than the hind; they are also more sloj^ing in front. The 
 two fore feet and the two hind should be in pairs. The 
 right and left feet are disting-uished from each other by 
 ihe inner side being more upright, or, if examined on the 
 "ttader surface, by the outer border being more f)rominent. 
 
6 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 Although to a casual observer the hoof appears as 
 one continuous horny structure, it may easily be separ- 
 ated into three distinct parts by prolonged soaking in 
 water. The division takes place so as to leave the sole^ 
 frog and v/all separate portions. These may now be 
 •considered. 
 
 Fig. 1.— a For© Foot. 
 
 The Wall is that portion of the hoof seen whilst 
 the foot rests upon the ground. It covers the front and 
 sides of the foot. It extends from the coronet down- 
 wards and slightly outwards, so that its lower circum- 
 ference is greater than its upper. The front portion 
 shows its greatest height and obliquity, diminishing in 
 these resj)ects as it passes backwards. At the heels the 
 wall is turned in upon itself, and j)asses forward towards 
 the centre of the foot until it becomes lost in the structure 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 7 
 
 of the sole. These turned-iii portions of the wall aTe 
 called the bars, and serve two purposes; they increase the 
 bearing surface of the wall, and by embracing a part of 
 the sole on each side, they afford an increased solidity to 
 the union of the wall with the rest of the hoof. 
 
 Fig. 2.— a Hind Foot. 
 
 If we detach the wall, its inner surface is seen to 
 consist of a number of thin, horny projections running 
 parallel to each other from above downwards and for- 
 wards. These are called the horny laminso. They 
 number from five to six hundred and correspond to 
 similar processes on the sensitive foot. (Fig. 3.) 
 
 Round the upper circumference on the inside of the 
 wall is a depression or groove presenting innumerable 
 small pits or openings. This corresponds to a part of the 
 sensitive foot called the coronary band, which will bo 
 noticed again. 
 
■8 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 A section of wall enables ns to see variations in its 
 thickness. (Fig. 4.) It is thickest at the toe, becoming 
 
 Fig. 3.— Half of a Hoof, showing tlio inside. 
 
 gradually thinner towards the heels; thus affording 
 strength and solidity to resist wear at one part, as well 
 as pliancy at another to ward off concussion. 
 
 Fio, 4.— Transverse Section of WaU, showing variation in thickness. 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 The structure of the wall is fibrous, the fibres 
 running j^arallel to each other, and with the same obli- 
 quity as that presented by the front of the walL 
 Although the wall varies in thickness from before back- 
 wards, it does not from above downwards. It main- 
 tains the same thickness from the coronet to its lower 
 circumference. 
 
 The layers of the wall are hardest externally, 
 becoming softer as they approach the inner surface — a 
 condition due to the outer layers being exposed to fric- 
 tion and evaporation. This is a simple and valuable 
 provision of nature which should not be interfered with. 
 The hard outer layer is best adapted to withstand wear, 
 and its density protects the deeper layers from evapora- 
 tion. This maintains the whole wall at the degree of 
 sof iness and toughness which best preserves elasticity and 
 strength of horn. 
 
 • Fig. 5.— The Sole with Frog removed. 
 
 The Sole is that division of the hoof which forms 
 the floor of the foot. It is situated within the lower 
 
10 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 border of tlie wall, and is slightly arched, so that on a 
 hard, level surface , its central part takes no bearing. 
 (Fig. 5.) Posteriorly the sole is divided by a triangular 
 space into which the frog fits, and thus its continuation 
 to the heels consists of two angular portions embraced 
 between the bars and the wall. The unmutilated sole is 
 throughout of nearly equal thickness, but a slight excess 
 round the circumference gives firmer attachment to tho 
 wall. 
 
 The inner surface presents a. finely pitted appearance, 
 which is most marked at the toe and round its border. 
 The part immediately related to the frog shows feAV pits, 
 and we shall find that the whole surface corresponds to 
 the sensitive parts to which it is attached. 
 
 The structure of the sole is, like the wall, fibrous; 
 but the fibres are smaller. They run downwards and 
 forwards in the same direction as those of the v/all. The 
 outer layers are the hardest and protect the deeper from 
 injury. 
 
 Fig, 6.— The Frog, detached from the Sole. 
 
 The Frog is the smallest division of the hoof, and 
 is a triangular shaped body filling up the space left be- 
 tween the bars. (Fig. G.) Its broad base is rounded and 
 prominent, and is continued laterally by a thin layer 
 which binds tocrether the heels and envelopes the back of 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 11 
 
 tke foot. This thin layer is contimious, with a horny 
 Land extending round the iipper part of the wall at its. 
 junction with the hair, and sometimes prolonged down- 
 wards on the surface of the wall. (Fig. 7.) It appears to 
 
 Fig. 7.— The Frog and Frog-band. 
 
 "be a continuation of the outer layer of the skin, analo- 
 gous to the free border of skin at the root of the human 
 nail. (Fig. 8.) It serves the useful purpose of covering 
 and protecting the young horn of the wall at its source of 
 growth. 
 
 Fig. 8.— The Frog-band deUched from wall by a small wedge. 
 
 The point of the frog, much the harder part, extends 
 forward to the centre of the sole. Though situated bet- 
 ween the bars, the frog is only attached to their upper 
 
12 
 
 THE ART OP HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 border, tlie sides remaining free and separate. Thus on 
 each side is formed a deep fissure which perjnits the frog 
 to expand laterally when compressed, without such force 
 being continued to the sides of the foot. The frog is 
 elastic, and when pressed upon must expand slightly. 
 If these spaces between frog and bars did not exist, the 
 foot would be injured when the fi'og was compressed by 
 the weight of the horse — either the sensitive parts within 
 would be bruised or the heels would be forced apart. 
 
 The centre of the frog presents a depression or 
 "cleft," caused by the doubling in of the horn. Few 
 shod feet exhibit it of natural ai)pearance, and the term 
 cleft, by implying a narrow deep fissure, keeps up the 
 false notion. The cleft should be shallow and rounded. 
 It serves two purposes — it increases the mobility of the 
 frog, and by breaking the regularity of surface affords a 
 secure fooi-liold on level gromid. 
 
 Fio. 9.— Section of Toot at cleft. 
 
 Fig. 10.— Section of Foot at cleft. 
 
 The prominence of the frog might lead a sujjerficial 
 observer to consider it a thick solid mass; and I believe 
 this mistake is the cause of its too frequent mutilation. 
 It is merely a layer of horn following the outline ot the 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 13 
 
 structures witliin, wliicli are similarly prominent and 
 irregular in surface. (Figs. 9 and 10.) The first diagram 
 «liows a section through the point of the frog, the second 
 ■a, section through the cleft. 
 
 The frog is fibrous, though not to such marked 
 degree as the other portions of the hoof. Its chief equali- 
 ties are elasticity and toughness. 
 
 The Secreting Structures. 
 
 If we macerate a dead foot in water for a week or 
 two, the hoof may be removed entire without injuring 
 the tissues within. In this way the sensitive foot or 
 *' quick " is exposed to view, and jjresents an exact coun- 
 terpa,rt of the inside of the hoof. The sensitive foot 
 consists of a layer of fibrous tissue' stretched over the 
 bones and other structures which form the centre of the 
 foot. It is plentifully supplied with blood-vessels and 
 nerves necessary to its double function as the source of 
 horn growth and as the tactile organ of the foot. Horn 
 is, of course, not sensitive, although the slightest touch 
 on a horse's hoof is recognized by the animal, and this 
 feeling is due to the impression made upon the sensitive 
 foot. In the living horse any injury to the "quick'* 
 <;auses the greatest pain, and, although this sensitiveness 
 is a serious disadvantage in disease, it is a most valuable 
 provision in health, enabling the horse, even through a 
 thick layer of horn, to recognize the quality of the sur- 
 face Tij^on which he may be standing or moving. It is 
 this sense of touch — this tactile function — which demands 
 that the sensitive foot should be so bountifully supplied 
 with nerves. 
 
 Every farrier knows how profusely blood flows from 
 •any wound of the "quick " — evidence that the part is well 
 supplied with blood-vessels. This full supply of blood is 
 not merely for the ordinary waste and repair which 
 takes place in every tissue; it is to meet a special demand 
 — to supply the material for the production of horn. 
 The sensitive foot is the secreting structure of the hoof, 
 ■and the source of the constant growth and reproductioa 
 
14 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 of horn. It corresponds witli great exactness to the- 
 inside of the hoof, and as we have described the hoof in 
 sections it may be convenient to follow that course with 
 this structure, and to describe the sensilive frog, the -sfu- 
 sitive sole, and the sensitive lamince. We shall begin with 
 the last. 
 
 The Sensitive Lamina.— Corresponding to the- 
 horny leaves on the inside of the wall, the sensitive foot 
 presents an arrangement of rninute parailul folds which 
 are called the sensitive laminfe. (Fig. 11.) Between 
 these the horny lamin&e rest, so that there is a kind of 
 interleaved attachment which affords tiio very tirmest 
 connection between the vv^all and the sensitive foot. If 
 the laminee be laid bare in a living horse by removal of 
 the wall, it is found that they have tlie power to secrete 
 a kind of horn, not a hard, fil:)rous horn like that of the 
 wall, but a softer variety. This function is not very 
 active in health or we shcrJd find that the lower edge of 
 the wall was thicker than the upper; but it exists, and 
 is very evident in som.e cases of disease. 
 
 Fig. 11.— Foot with hoof removed showing at the upper part the 
 Coronary band, and below the Sensitive Laminae. 
 
 In laminitis, the wall at the toe is often pushed for^ 
 •ward out of jjosition by a horny mass formed by the- 
 laminae, and so we have the deformity of an excessive^■ 
 length of toe. In some cases of long continued sand- 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 15 
 
 ■crack, the irritation of the laminae causes excessive 
 •secretion, and a horn tumor results. The sensitive 
 laminae, then, fulfil two functions; they offer a firm con- 
 necting medium for the wall, and they secrete horn. 
 By the cruel experiment of removing the horny sole 
 and frog of a living horse and then forcing him to stand 
 •on the maimed foot on a level surface, it has been shown 
 that the laminae are capable of alone supporting the 
 weight of the animal. It has been argued from this that 
 the laminae always siipport the weight, and that the 
 horse's foot may be described as being slung by the 
 connecting laminae. Tliis is not true. The frog and 
 sole help to support weight, and the hoof acts as one 
 continuous whole, each part taking its direct and pro- 
 portionate share of the weight j^laced upon the foot. 
 ' The sensitive laminae are not elastic, they are unyielding, 
 ■ and, therefore, allow no downward yielding which would 
 impose excessive pressure on the sole. 
 
 Tkh Coronary Band. (See Fig. 11.) The sensitive 
 laminae do not cover the whole of the upright portions of 
 the sensitive foot. There is between their upper extre- 
 mity and the line which separates the skin from the 
 sensitive foot, a convex band which runs round the 
 upper border of the foot, and is turned downwards and 
 inwards at the heels. This is called the coronary band, 
 and corresponds to the groove which we noticed on the 
 inner side of the upper border of the wall. On its sur- 
 face are innumerable small projections or papillae which, 
 in the living animal, fit into the openings on the groove 
 of the wall. From each of these papillae grows a horn 
 fibre, and from the surface between tliem is formed a 
 softer horny matter — the two products forming together 
 the substance of 'the wall. The coronary band is, then, 
 an important structure, being the source from whence 
 the wall is produced. Upon the healthy condition of 
 "this band depends the soundness of the wall, and any 
 interference with its integrity must lead to defects or 
 ^deformities in the wall. 
 
 The Sensitive Sole (Fig. 12) is that portion of the 
 
16 THE ART OP HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 ** quick" to wicli the sole is attaclied. Its surface is; 
 covered with papillae, like those on the coronary band, 
 but much smaller, giving an appearance somewhat like- 
 the pile of velvet. From these the horn fibres of the 
 sole are formed, and a firm means of connection i& 
 afforded for the floor of the hoof. 
 
 Fig. 12.— Under Surfaco of Foot shovring Sensitive E'lr.^ and Sole. 
 
 The Sensitive Frog in structure resembles the 
 sensitive sole, bnt its papilljs are very much smaller, and 
 the surface, therefore, is smoother. The irregular, pro- 
 minent surface of the frog, with its cleft and the space 
 at each side of it, is exactly reproduced on the sensitive 
 frog, as might be expected, for the one is moulded on the 
 other. There is one difference between the sensitive- 
 frog and the other jiortions of the sensitive foot whicli I 
 may here mention. It is not attached to the bones of the 
 foot, except by its point, but is situated behind the bone, 
 and has as a basis a mass of soft tissue which forms art-, 
 important cushion or pad, to be referred to later. 
 
FORJI AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 17 
 
 Growtli of Hoof. 
 
 Like every otlier part of an animal body, tlie lioof is 
 constantly changing. "Wear and tear cause waste of the 
 horn, which is replenished by growth. When wear 
 exceeds growth the foot becomes denuded of horn, and 
 lameness results. When growth exceeds wear, the hoof 
 becomes disproj^orfcionately long, and some parts suffer 
 by the overgrowth of others — for instance, whenever the 
 heels are unduly high, the frog'becomes small and weak. 
 In a state of nature, the horse's foot keeps itself of pro- 
 portionate form. On hard ground, the hoof is worn 
 away as quickly as it grows. On soft ground, it may, 
 for a time, become overgiown, but this is rectified by 
 the soft horji becoming fractured and broken off. In 
 enclosed, cultivated grounds, the movements of the horse, 
 even on grass land, are too limited to ensure a propor- 
 tionatf-3 form of hoof. When horses are turned out 
 without shoes, the feet should not be left to take care of 
 themselves, unless the pasture is of large area and the 
 time at grass extends for several months. 
 
 In a hoof which is overgrown — and all shod feet 
 become overgrown in four or five weeks — there is appar- 
 ently a greater excess of horn at the toe than elsewhere. 
 This is due to the oblique direction of the wall at the toe, 
 and to the fact that the horn fibres of the hoof do not 
 grow down vertically, but oljliquely forward. When 
 the natural wear of the hoof is prevented, the effect of 
 growth is to lengthen the toe and carry forward the 
 bearing surface of the foot. ISTow, this bearing surface 
 has a proper relative position to the limb above it. 
 Therefore a disproportionate foot must injuriously affect 
 both the action and position of the whole limb. 
 
 The rate at which the wall grows varies greatly in 
 different horses, and is affected by external conditions. 
 The good average wall grows nearly one inch in three 
 months, and the whole hoof is replaced in from ten to 
 fifteen months. The hoof grows more rapidly when a 
 horse is actively exercised than when he is confined in a 
 box. Febrile diseases check growth, and irregularities 
 
18 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 of the system cause the formation of ridges in the horn, 
 each one commencing at the coronet and being carried 
 down with the growing horn until the hoof is marked by 
 a series of rings running transversely and parallel to 
 each other. These rings are of themselves no detriment 
 to a horse, but they mark irregularities of growth which 
 may have been due to illness or lameness. 
 
 The growth of horn on a shod foot is affected by the 
 bearing it takes. When a part of the wall takes no 
 bearing on the shoe it grows quicker than that which 
 does. We see this when a shoe is so fitted that the heels 
 take no direct pressure on the shoe, also when a portion 
 of wall is broken at the quarters, and again when, for 
 any reason, a portion of the edge of the wall has been 
 rasped away to prevent bearing upon some sjjecial spot. 
 In all these cases, after the shoe has been worn a month, 
 it will bo found that the horn has grown more rapidly 
 at the part where bearing did not take place, and, when 
 the shoe is removed, the horn which was relieved of 
 pressure is found to have been in apposition with 
 the slioe. 
 
 The growth of horn cannot be accelerated by any 
 application to its surface. If we desire to hasten growth 
 of the wall we can do so by stimulating the part from 
 which it is produced, i.e., the coronary band. A mild 
 blister to the coronet causes considerable increase in the 
 rapidity of growth, but no ointments applied to the sur- 
 face of the wall affect its production in the least, though 
 they may modify its condition and prevent dryness and 
 brittleness. 
 
 The sole grows in much the same way as the wall, 
 but it wears quite differently. It never becomes over- 
 grown to the extent seen in some instances of the wall. 
 The hard, firm structure of the wall, if not worn down by 
 friction on roads or dry, hard surfaces, may grow to a 
 great length. As a rule, when much overgrown, it splits 
 in the direction of its fibres and becomes detached m 
 broken fragments. The sole, when overgrown, has a 
 tendency to become detached in flakes, and never very 
 much exceeds its normal thickness without becoming 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 19 
 
 •dry and brittle, when the movements of the horse cause 
 it to break np and fall off. 
 
 The frog, when it takes a bearing on the ground, 
 wears off in shreds. A frog which takes no bearing 
 ■dries up, and sometimes a large, superficial layer is cast 
 -off. Though the softest of the horny divisions of the 
 hoof, the frog is able to withstand wear and tear as well 
 as any of the others. Being elastic and resting upon soft 
 tissues, it is able to yield to any undue pressure and 
 leave the firmer horn of the wall and bars to sustain the 
 greater strain. The growth of the frog depends a great 
 deal upon the form of the back parts of the wall. If the 
 heels become overgrown, the frog is removed from bear- 
 ing and consequently wastes. High heels have always 
 between them a small frog. On the other hand, low, 
 weak heels have always a large frog, and the explanation 
 is that the increased bearing thrown on the frog causes 
 greater development. 
 
 Properties of Horn. — Horn is light, hard, tough, 
 and elastic, properties most essential to its usefulness as 
 a i:)rotector of the foot. Horn is porous, and absorbs 
 moisture. Too much moisture in horn weakens it, and 
 therefore it must be remembered that the natural pro- 
 tection against this is the hard outer layer of the hoof. 
 "When this layer is rasped off, moisture is more easily 
 absorbed until the dry, hard surface is restored by 
 ■exposure and friction. 
 
 Horn is a bad conductor of heat, and thus an equally 
 .good protective against the effects of snow in some coun- 
 tries, and of hot, dry sands in others. With a sound, 
 thick hoof, the application of a red-hot shoe produces 
 very little effect on the internal structures, provided, of 
 course, it remain in contact only a reasonable time. 
 With a foot protected by a thin layer of horn, fitting a 
 red-hot shoe must be done quickly, or it may damage the 
 soft tissues. 
 
 Dissection of the Foot. 
 
 So far we have only described the outer covering of 
 the foot and the structure from which it grows and by 
 
so THE ART OF HORSE SHOEING. 
 
 -which it is connected to the parts within. A little deeper 
 examination is necessary to understand the mechanism 
 of the whole organ. 
 
 If we divide into two lateral halves, a foot cut off at 
 the fetlock joint, we have a section which should show 
 the whole of the deeper structures. In the centre, we see 
 the three lower bones of the limb— the pastern, coronet, 
 and pedal. (Fig. 11.) On the front surface of these 
 
 Fig, 11.— Section of Foot. 
 
 "bones, we notice a tendon or sinew which comes from 
 above the knee and is fixed to the upper part of the pedal 
 bone. At the back of the bones, two very large tendons 
 Tun down and are fixed on the last two bones. These 
 tendons are the structures through which the movements 
 of the foot are made. They have in themselves no power 
 of contraction, but they are connected above the knee, ' 
 and in the hind leg above the hock, to powerful muscles 
 which possess the power of contraction. When these 
 muscles contract, the tendons are drawn up towards knee 
 or hock, and so move the foot backwards or forwards. 
 
 To permit movement of one bone ui)on another, the 
 ends of the bones are suitably shaped, and covered with 
 a layer of gristle or cartilage. To limit the movement 
 ^■ud to hold the bones together, the ends of each bone are- 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 21 
 
 surrounded by ligaments, and tlius we have joints formed. 
 The pastern bone is altogether above the level of the 
 foot, the coronet bone is partially within the hoof, and 
 the joint between it and the pedal bone is quite within. 
 
 FiQ. 12.— &ide view of Pedal Bone. 
 
 The pedal, often called the coffin bone (Fig. 12), is entirely 
 "within the hoof and fills the front part of the horny 
 envelope comiiletely. It is a peculiarly shaped bone. 
 
 Fig, 13. — Under surface of Pedal Bone. 
 
 being continued backwards by two projections whicli 
 follow the course of the wall to a little beyond the quar- 
 ters of the foot. (Fig. 13.) From this point to the- 
 
22 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 -extremity of tlie heels, the wall is not supported by bone, 
 but by strong plates of gristle, which are called the 
 lateral cartilages. 
 
 Fig. 11— The Lateral Cartilage. 
 
 The Lateral Cartilages are situated one on either 
 
 -side of the foot, partly within and partly without the 
 
 hoof. They form the basis upon which the back part of 
 
 the wall is moulded, and being elastic, permit a certaia 
 
 Pig. 15.— Coffin Bone and Lateral Cartilages seen from above, 
 
 amount of movement in the posterior parts of the foot. 
 (Fig. 14.) If the coffin bone filled the whole hoof, the 
 foot would be too rigid. With bone at the front portion. 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 23 
 
 we have a firm surface for attacliment, and with, cartilage 
 at the back, we have an equally firm attachment, but 
 one that will yield to blows or pressure and thus better 
 protect the internal parts. These cartilages extend above ■ 
 the level of the hoof, and may be easily felt in the living 
 horse at the back part of the coronet. (Fig. 15.) Be- 
 tween them, and behind the body of the coffin bone is a . 
 large space which is filled up by a mass of soft tissue, to 
 which various names have been given, such as plantar- 
 cushion, frog-pad, etc. 
 
 The Frog-Pad is the name under which we shall 
 notice it. It forms the bulbs of the heels and is the soft 
 basis upon which is spread the sensitive frog. It extends 
 from side to side of the foot between the two lateral 
 cartilages, and fills up all the space within the hoof 
 behind the body of the coffin bone. The structure of this 
 pad may be described roughly as consisting of a network 
 of fibrous bands, having the interstices filled up with 
 elastic tissue. (Fig. 16.) Down the centre of the j)ad 
 
 Fig. 16.— Seciloa of Foot showing the Frog-Pad and at each side 
 the cut edge of the Lateral Cartilage 
 
 runs a vertical partition of inelastic fibres; from this, 
 strong, fibrous bands pass to each cartilage, and so the 
 whole of the back part of the foot is tied together. The 
 heels and quarters maj'- be pressed together to some 
 extent, but they are prevented from being forced asunder 
 by the fibrous connections of the frog-pad. During pro- 
 
24 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 gression, tlie downward movement of the coronet bone is 
 provided for by this soft pad, and so is an upward move- 
 ment of the frog, when excessive bearing is placed 
 upon it. 
 
 The frog-pad serves other purposes besides those we 
 have just referred to. It is essentially a cushion or pad 
 to prevent jar or concussion, but it also plays an impor- 
 tant part in the action of the foot, as we shall see later on. 
 
 The Coronary Cushion or Pad is another mass 
 of tissue of a similar nature to the frog-pad. It is 
 situated just above the upper border of the hoof, and 
 gives to the coronet its prominence and elasticity. At 
 this part of the foot there is an enormous number of 
 small blood-vessels and nerves, and the coronary pad 
 forms not only a base for these to rest on, but a neces- 
 sary protection for them. If, instead of this elastic bed, 
 they were placed merely between the skin and the hard 
 bones and tendons of the part, they would be injured by 
 every slight bruise. Even with this cushion, we have, 
 in practice, very many serious conditions following 
 bruise of the coronet 
 
 Blood-vessels op the Foot.— -It is not necessary to 
 describe the course of these vessels. All we need remem- 
 ber is that every part of the tissues within the hoof is 
 very plentifully supplied with blood, and that the flow 
 of blood is most rapid when the foot is in action. In a 
 dead foot, from which the blood has escaped, a certain 
 amount of movement of the bones within the hoof is 
 easily effected. In the living foot, when every vessel is 
 filled with blood, no such movement takes place. The 
 blood in the vessels forms a sort of water-bed, which 
 assists in preventing concussion and which distributes 
 evenly over the whole organ the pressure applied, when 
 weight is thrown on the foot. In studying the dead foot 
 with a view to understand its mechanism, we must not 
 lose sight of the difference which results from having in 
 one case the blood-vessels empty, and in the other — the 
 livino; animal— the blood-vessels full. 
 
 *o 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 25 
 
 The Foot as a "Whole. 
 
 Tlie details I have given of the structure and uses of 
 -each separate part of the foot Avill, I hope, be sufficient 
 to enable us to understand the form and action of the 
 -organ as a whole. 
 
 No one part of the foot is of greater importance than 
 another; each is dependent for its highest development 
 and soundest condition upon the integrity of neigh- 
 boring parts. 
 
 A weak wall allows of the flattening and spreading of 
 the sole, whilst a weak sole x^ermits contraction of the 
 wall. Overgrown heels cause wasting of the frog, but 
 low, weak heels are usually accompanied by excessive 
 development of frog. 
 
 The special function of the foot is to sustain the 
 weight of the animal whilst standing or moving. The 
 horse standing squarely on all four feet rests his weight 
 chiefly on the lower circumference of the wall. On level 
 ground, the sole, on account of its arched form, takes no 
 direct bearing, but if sole and wall be sound, a propor- 
 tion of all pressure applied to the wall is trail smitted to 
 the sole. So, also, must all weight imposed on the arch 
 of the sole be transmitted, through its abutments or 
 union with the wall, to the wall. If the sole bo so thin 
 that it jaelds to pressure, then its proper action is des- 
 troyed, and instead of acting like an arch and supporting 
 weight imposed on it, it yields, and injury results. The 
 arched form of the sole indicates that it was not intended 
 to take a direct bearing on hard ground. On a soft sur- 
 face, the edge of the wall sinks and the whole under 
 surface of the foot takes a direct bearing. Pressure of 
 the sole on the soft surface does no harm, because it is 
 diffused evenly over the wholo of the sole. We take 
 advantage of this when the wall is diseased or injured, 
 and we desire to throw on the sole a larger share of 
 weight. We turn such animals out into a soft field or 
 stable them on sand or saw-dust. Any system of shoeing 
 founded upon the true form and action of the foot must 
 recognize the arch, and not endeavor to force the sole 
 
26 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 to take a bearing for whicli it is not adapted. There is- 
 only one part of the sole which should act as a bearing- 
 surface, viz., that outer border whicli is firmlj' joined to 
 the wall. This part — the abutment of the arch — is des- 
 tined by nature to take a bearing, and through it the 
 ■whole of the sole supports its share of weight. 
 
 The frog takes a bearing on the ground, but it has a 
 weight-sustaining function quite secondary to the harder 
 and firmer jiarts of the hoof. It is formed of a softer 
 horn, and it has above it only soft tissues which permit 
 yielding. The frog, then, when weight is placed upon it- 
 by the standing horse, recedes from, pressuro and leaves 
 the heels (wall and bars) to sustain the primarj^ weight. 
 "Wall, sole and frog, each take their share in supporting- 
 weight, but this function is distributed over them in dif- 
 ferent degrees, a.nd it is f uliilled by each in a varying 
 manner. During progression, the foot is repeatedly 
 raised from and replaced on the ground. It has not 
 only to support weight, but to sustain the effects of con- 
 tact with the ground at each stop, and the effects of 
 being tlie point of resistance when the body is carried 
 for\7ard and the foot is again raised from the ground. 
 
 What part of the foot comes first to the ground?' 
 Many different answers have been given to this ques- 
 tion. It has been said by some that the toe first touches 
 the ground; by others, that the foot is laid fi.it down; 
 and by a few, that the heel is the first part to come in 
 contact with the ground. Fortunately, it is not now 
 necessary to argue this question on a purely theoretical 
 basis. Instantaneous photograpy has shown that on 
 level ground, at all paces, the horse touches the ground 
 first with the heel. This fact gives significance to tho 
 structural differences we find between the front and back 
 portions of the foot. At the back part of the foot, we 
 liave the wall thinner than elsewhere, we have the 
 moveable and elastic frog, the lateral cartilages, and the 
 frog-pad. We have, in fact, a whole series of soft and 
 elastic structures so arranged as to provide a mechanism 
 best adapted to meet shock and to avoid concussion. 
 Whilst drawing heavy loads, or ascending or descending: 
 
FORM AND ACTION OF THE FOOT. 27 
 
 liills, the horse may vary his action to suit the circum- 
 stances, and then we have the exception, which proves 
 the rule — then we have sometimes the heel, sometimes 
 the toe brought first to the ground. 
 
 At the time when the foot first touches the ground, 
 the leg is extended forward and the j)astern is in the 
 same oblique position to the shank as when a horse is 
 standing. This obliquity of the pastern is another safe- 
 gr.ard against concussion, and it renders impossible the 
 first contact with the ground at any point other than at 
 the heel. As the leg becomes straightened, the weight 
 of the body is imposed upon the foot, but the greatest 
 strain arrives just before the toe leaves the ground, for 
 then there is not only weight to sustain, but the friction 
 to be borne which results from the toe being the fulcrum 
 upon which falls the whole effect of the muscular effort 
 necessary to raise and carry forward the body of the 
 animal. The front part of the foot is structurally vrell 
 adi-xptcd for its use. It presents the thickest and strong- 
 est part of the horny covering; and, as an inside basis, it 
 h.p.s the unyielding coffin bone. Thus we have at the 
 too .strength and rigidity; at the heels, strength and 
 elasticity. 
 
 Another important point in the action of the foot is 
 implied by the question — does it expand when weight is 
 thrown on it? The ijrinciples of horse-shoeing require 
 that this question should be answered. There are those 
 who say that the foot does not alternately expand and 
 retract as weight is placed upon or removed from it. 
 There aro others who assert that the expansion of the 
 foot is an important natural function that must be pro- 
 vided for in any system of shoeing. It is agreed by most 
 observers that at the upper border of the hoof, more par- 
 ticularly at the heels, expa>nsion does occur. It is when 
 we come to the lower border of the foot that the state- 
 ments are most conflicting. Ordinary measurements 
 taken at this part with calipers or by tracings on paper 
 of the foot when raised from the ground and when rest- 
 ing upon it, show no variations in the width of the foot. 
 These methods of measuremejit are not sufficiently 
 
28 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 delicate to be trustworthy. Experimentalists in Ger- 
 many and in this country have recently used an appar- 
 a,tus by which the slightest variations are detected by 
 electrical contact, and the results are very interesting. 
 These experiments show that in a well-formed, healthy 
 foot the hoof, throughout its posterior two-thirds, does 
 expand to pressure, and perhaps that the arch of the 
 sole is slightly flattened. This expansion is, however, 
 comparativ^ely slight — about equal to the thickness of a 
 slieet of writing paper — and may practically be disre- 
 garded in considering the best methods of shoeing sound 
 feet. 
 
 One result of these experiments is to show what an 
 important part the frog plays in the foot, and also how 
 the action of one j)art depends upon the conditions of 
 others. V/lien the frog rests firmly on the ground and 
 weight is placed upon the foot, expansion occurs, espe- 
 cially at the upper or coronary border of the hoof. 
 When the frog does not touch the ground and weight is 
 imposed upon the foot, contraction occurs. The expla- 
 nation of this difference seems to be as follows. When 
 weight is placed upon a foot, the coronet bone is 
 depressed upon the soft mass of the frog-pad. With a 
 sound frog taking a bearing upon the ground, the frog- 
 pad cannot descend, and the compression to which it is 
 therefore submitted causes it to bulge laterally and so 
 expand the back of the foot. When the frog does not 
 reach the ground, and weight is placed upon the frog- 
 pad, there is nothing to prevent it yielding downwards, 
 and in so doing, the fibrous bands connecting together 
 the two lateral cartilages of the foot are depressed and 
 the cartilages drawn together; hence the contraction of 
 the foot. No better illustration could be given of the 
 unity of all parts of the foot, and how one or many parts 
 may suffer if the structure or function of one be defective. 
 
 There is one more movement of the hoof which is 
 possible and which must be referred to, as it has been 
 made the basis of a grave error in shoeing. I have said 
 the back part of the foot is elastic and yielding. If you 
 examine a shoe, so applied to a foot that an inch or more 
 
FORM AND ACTION OP THE FOOT. 29 
 
 of its extremity has no contact with the hoof, you will 
 find that, when weight is rested on that foot, the horn 
 yiekls downwards and conies in contact with the shoe. 
 This simply demonstrates that, when there is nothing to 
 supj)ort it, the horn at the heels may be forced down- 
 wards. It is not a normal action, and in an nnshod foot 
 cannot occur on a level surface. The effect of this down- 
 ward movement of the heels is to put a strain on thd 
 horn of the quarters. A shoe so fitted as to permit this 
 evil is in common use, and no fault is more serious than 
 thus forcing an unnatural action upon the hoof at every 
 Btep. With unintentional irony, this piece of had work 
 has been called " easing the heels." 
 
 In concluding this chapter, I would just repeat that 
 the natural bearing surface of the horse's foot is tho 
 lower edge of the wall and that portion of the sol© 
 immediately in union with it; that the arch of the sole 
 should not be in contact with the ground; that the frog- 
 ought to have a bearing on the ground, but ought not to 
 be so x^rominent as to unduly share in sustaining weight. 
 This natural bearing surface is what we want to utilize 
 in shoeing. We put on a shoe merely to prevent excessive 
 wear of the hoof. If we can protect the wall, the frog caa 
 take care of itself, and we have only so to apply our 
 shoe that we do not damage any useful structure or 
 interfere with any natural function. 
 
 Note, — No person is expected to learn the structure of a foot 
 entirely from this description. He must obtain two feet cut off at 
 the fetlock joint. One he should soak in water till the hoof can be 
 pulled off. The sensitive foot is then visible and the inside of the 
 hoof; with these before him, the drawings and descriptions in this, 
 chapter will be of great assistance. The second foot he should have 
 sawn vertically down the middle through the point of the toe, and 
 again across the quarters, so as to show the inside of the foot from 
 two different points of view; this will afford a view of the relation, 
 of parts. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Preparation of the Foot. 
 
 The cheap wisdom of the amateur is often expressedJ 
 in the remark " the shoe should be fitted to the foot, not 
 the foot to the shoe."' Like many other dogmatic state-- 
 ments, this is only the unqualified assertion of half a. 
 truth. Foot and shoe have to be fitted to each other. 
 There are very few horses whose feet do not require con- 
 siderable alteration before a shoe can be properly fitted 
 to them. As a rule, when a horse arrives at the forge,, 
 the feet are overgrown and quite out of proportion. In 
 a few cases — as when a pIioo lias been lost en a joumey — 
 the foot is worn or broken and irregularly deficient in 
 horn. In either instance, the farrier has to make alter- 
 ations in the hoof to obtain the best bearing surface 
 before he fits a new shoo. The claim often made for 
 some novel inventions in horse shoes, "that they may be 
 fitted and applied in the stable by a groom or stable mo.n," 
 is evidence of a sad misunderstanding of the art of horse- • 
 shoeing. If shod feet always remained of the same^ 
 shape, replacement of shoes would be a very easy matter, , 
 but they never do. The living foot is coiistan'dy chang- 
 ing, and therefore the man entrusted with fitting shoes. 
 to it must know what its proper form should be. Whexii 
 he finds it disproportionately overgrown, he must know 
 how much horn to remove — where to take away and 
 where to leave alone. He must not carry in his head a , 
 theoretical standard of a perfect foot, and attempt to. 
 reduce all feet to that shape. He must make allowance ■ 
 for varieties of feet, and for many little diiJerences of' 
 form that present themselves in practice. He has, in 
 fact, to prepare the foot for a shoe, and it is just as-- 
 important to do this properly as it is to prepare a shoe 
 for the foot. To fit a shoe to a foot which has not been 
 properly prepared, may be even more injurious to the- 
 torse than " to fit the foot to the shoe." 
 
 30 
 
PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 31 
 
 The general principle to be followed is — to remove 
 tsuperfluous horn, to obtain a good bearing surface for a 
 «hoe, to bring all parts of the hoof equally into propor- 
 Ttion. A good foot so prepared, when the horse is stand- 
 
 IG. 17. 
 
 ing on level ground, should show, when looked at from 
 the front, both sides of the wall of equal height; the 
 transverse line of the coronet should be parallel with the 
 -line of the lower border of the hoof, and the perpendi- 
 
32 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 cular line of tlie leg sliould cut those lines at right 
 angles. (Fig. 17.) When looked at from the side, the- 
 height of the heels and the toe should be proportionate. 
 When looked at from behind, the frog should be seen 
 touching the ground. On lifting the foot, a level bearing, 
 surface wider than the wall should be presented, extend- 
 ing from heel to too all round the circumference of the- 
 hoof; within this level border, the sole should be concave, 
 strong and rough. 
 
 In Fig. 17 is shown the foot on its ground surface- 
 and from the side. The parallel lines are quite arbit- 
 rary, but assist in explaining how the proportion of the 
 foot is to be attained. Both sides of the foot are of the 
 same height. The bearing surface just meets the middle 
 line. All the lines at coronet, heel and toe are at right 
 angles to the perpendicular line. The side view shows 
 the proportionate height of heel and toe and the slope of 
 the wall in front. Compared with Figs. 33 and 33, 
 deviations from proportion are seen. 
 
 These conditions are not attainable with all feet, but 
 the prudent farrier does the best he can under the cir- 
 cumstances. It is easy to make tlie frog touch the 
 ground by over-lowering the heels, but this is only intro- 
 ducing one evil in attempting to avoid another. Some 
 feet have naturally a long toe with an excessive slope of 
 the front part of the wall. To hide this defect, a farrier 
 may "stump up" the toe and leave the heels too high, 
 but he does so at the expense of the horse's foot. Each 
 foot requires treating with full knowledge of the form 
 best adapted to its natural formation, and most cajDable 
 of carrying a shoe. 
 
 The Instruments used to prepare a foot for shoeing 
 are a rasp, a drawing knife and a toeing knife. 
 
 The rasp is the most indispensable. It should be- 
 sixteen inches long, proportionately broad, and one part 
 of it should be a file-surface. The shorter, narrow rasps 
 do not afford all the advantages a farrier should possess 
 to enable him to do the best work. To strike an even, 
 all-round level bearing surface on a hoof, a farrier- 
 
PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. 33 
 
 requires a large rasp, just as a joiner must have a large 
 plane to produce a level-surface on wood. Harm, may 
 be done by the careless use of a rasp, and a bearing- 
 surface spoiled by the over-reduction of horn at one 
 place. This fault may be aggravated by attempts to 
 mend it, if such attempt take the form of further reduc- 
 tion of the whole hoof on a foot where horn is deficient. 
 
 The drawing knife is a comparatively modern instru- 
 ment, which replaced a tool called the buttress. A draw- 
 ing knife is formed with great skill for the purpose of 
 paring out the concave sole of the hoof, and has done 
 infinite harm. In the days which have now almost 
 passed away, when it was thought the proper thing to 
 make the hoof look clean, smooth and pretty, the draw- 
 ing knife was the chief instrument in the j^reparation of 
 the foot, Now, when nearly all men know that the 
 stronger the sole and frog of the foot can be preserved, 
 the better for the horse, this knife is less used — and the 
 less the better. The doorman, preparing a foot for the 
 fireman to fit a shoe to, should not use a knife at all. 
 The man who fits the shoe requires a knife to remove 
 occasional little prominences of horn which are liable to 
 cause uneven pressures or which are in the way of a 
 properly fitted shoe — as, for instance, the edge of the 
 wall to make way for a clip, or the angle of sole at the 
 heel to prevent uneven pressure by the shoe. 
 
 The toeing knife usually consists of about a foot of 
 an old sword-blade. This knife is held and guided by 
 one hand of the farrier, whilst witli the other it is driven 
 through overgrown horn by the hammer. Skilfully 
 used, it is unobjectionable, and for the large, strong 
 hoof of heavy draught horses, it saves a great deal of 
 time and labor. For the lighter class of horses it is 
 unecessary, and for weak feet with a thin horn covering 
 it is dangerous. 
 
 The toeing knife cannot leave a finished level bear- 
 ing surface, and its work has to be completed by a few 
 strokes of the rasp. A farrier should, therefore, never 
 attempt to remove all the superfluous horn with the 
 knife; he should leave some for the rasp, so that in pro- 
 
34 
 
 THE ART CF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 diicing the final level surface, no encroachment upon the 
 necessary thickness of covering horn need be made. 
 
 The OvEFiGROWN Foot, such as we find on a healthy 
 horse that has retained a set of shoes for some weeks, or 
 that has been without shoes on a surface not hard enough 
 to cause sufficient wear, is quite unfitted to receive a 
 shoo. It must be reduced to j)i"oportions. In Fig. 18, 
 
 Fig. 18. 
 
 I have attempted to show diagrammatically a side view 
 of an overgrown hoof. The dotted lines at the base 
 shoAV two effects of lowering one part more than another, 
 although both attain a level surface. In Fig. 21, we see 
 the result of over-lowering the heels, and in Fig. 30, of 
 leaving them too high. It may also be noticed that 
 these conditions affect other parts of the foot; in fact, not 
 only otiier parts, but the whole foot, and even the rela- 
 tive position of the foot to the leg. If we compare the 
 proportionate foot. Fig. 19, with the diagram Fig. 21, it 
 will be seen that by over-lowering the heels, the slope of 
 the front of the foot is increased, that the bearing sur- 
 face from heel to toe is slightly increased in length, and 
 that if the dotted perpendicular line be accepted as 
 showing the direction through which the weight of the 
 body passes, lowering the heels tends to put an increased 
 proportion of weight on the back parts of the foot. If 
 
PREPARATION OF THE HOOF, 35 
 
 "^e compare Fig. 19 with Fig. 20, we see the effect of 
 leaving the heels too high. The bearing surface from 
 heel to toe is shortened, the slope of the wall at the toe 
 is made less, and more weight is thrown upon the front 
 parts of the foot. 
 
 Now, these alterations in both cases affect not only 
 the form of the foot, but its relative position to the leg, 
 and as the bones of the limb above are a series of levers 
 connected by muscles and ligaments so placed as to be 
 most efficient for movement, it is evident that alterations 
 of the foot must affect the action of the limb. (Compare 
 Figs. 19, 20 and 21.) In the unshod horse roaming 
 about, there is a natural automatic return to proper rela- 
 tive position whenever it has been temporarily upset. 
 A long toe is worn down and high heels are reduced to 
 their proper level by friction. Not so a foot protected 
 l)y an iron shoe. Wear is stopped, and a disproportion- 
 ate hoof becomes more and more disproportionate. Tem- 
 porary alterations of the position of the foot do little 
 }!.arm, because they are permitted, within a margin, by 
 the movement of joints and by the elasticity of muscles. 
 When, however, an alteration of position is continued 
 for many weeks, it tends to become permanently fixed, 
 and may thus do a great deal of harm, which is not 
 traced to its real cause, because the effect is slow and 
 gradual. It is important, therefore, to remember that 
 the proportion of the hoof is to be maintained, not only 
 because it is necessary to the well-being of the foot, but 
 because it affects the action of the whole limb. Too 
 long a toe may cause a horse to stumble, and it must 
 always increase the strain on the back tendons during 
 progression. Heels too high prevent the frog from tak- 
 ing its proper bearing on the ground, and thus cause a 
 loss of function in the back parts of the foot. An exces- 
 sively high heel has a tendency to throw the knee for- 
 ward and to straighten the pastern. . 
 
 It is impossible to lay down any hard and fast rule 
 to guide a farrier in maintaining the proportions of 
 heel and toe, when reducing an overgrown hoof to 
 proper form. Feet differ much in their natural forma- 
 
36 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 Fig. 19.— a proportionate Hoof. 
 
 Fig. 20.— a disproportionate Hoof— heels too liigli. 
 
 Fig. 21.— a disproportionate Hoof— heels too low. 
 
PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 37 
 
 tion; some are high-heeled and some low, some are 
 straight in front, some very much sloped, some are 
 narrow and upright, others round and spreading. In 
 Fig. 22, the heels are too high, and the bearing surface 
 
 FiG„ 22.— Heels high— under surface and side view. 
 
 does not reach the transverse line at the heels. The side 
 view shows the excessive height of heels, and the slope 
 of the wall in front too upright. Great assistance is 
 afforded the farrier in judging whether he should remove 
 more horn from heel or toe by the appearance of the 
 
-•:38 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 tinder surface of the foot. When the heels are much 
 above the level of the frog there is an indication for 
 their lowering. When the wall and bars are about flush 
 with the angle of sole between them, there is, as a rule, 
 no more horn to spare at that part. The length of the 
 
 Fig. 33.— Heels low— toe long. 
 
 toe may be usefully gauged by the condition of the j unc- 
 tion between wall and sole. When the sole is sound and 
 strong, all the wall above its level — wall unsupported by 
 ■sole and showing on its inner aspect marks of the horny 
 
PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 3& 
 
 laminsB — may "be rasped down so that a firm bearing^ 
 surface is obtained, consisting of wall and sole. 
 
 In Fig. 23, tbe bearing surface at the heels is below 
 the line marking a proportionate foot. The toe is too 
 long and projects beyond the transverse toe line. The 
 side view shows the low heel and the corresponding 
 excess in the slope of the wall in front. The lower 
 transverse line in each figure does not represent the 
 ground, but is added to make clear the height of heels 
 and length of toe. 
 
 Important as it is to maintain the relative propor- 
 tions between the front and back parts of the foot, it is 
 perhaps even more important to preserve the balance 
 between the two sides of a foot. Both sides must be left 
 of equal height. If one side be higher than the other, a 
 disproportionate amount of weight is thrown on the 
 lower side, and more or less strain is put upon the liga- 
 ments of the ioint above. In the Figs. 24, one limb is 
 
 I 
 
 Level foot. 
 
 Fig. 24. 
 
 I 
 
 One side too high. 
 
 shown with both sides of the hoof even, and the straight 
 line of the limb cuts squarely across the transverse line 
 of the bearing surface of the foot. In the other limb, 
 one side of the hoof is too high, and, in the preparation 
 for shoeing, only that side will require attention. 
 
 Through constant neglect of this point, some feet 
 become more or less permanently twisted — and the twist 
 occurs at the coronet. The ground surface of a foot or 
 a shoe always tends to remain at right angles to the 
 
40 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 direction of tlie limb, and when tlie sides of a hoof are 
 allowed to remain of unequal height, the higher side 
 presses the soft tissues of the coronet upwards. As the 
 hoof grows from the coronet, the side thus increased in. 
 height is not so noticeably uneven at the lower border of 
 the wall as at its upper, and it cannot be restored to its 
 proper form, except by months of careful attention and 
 slight over-lowering at each shoeing. The diagrams 
 (Figs. 25 and 26) represent vertical sections through a 
 foot from side to side. One shows the wall uneven at 
 the base, the other shows it uneven at the coronet. 
 
 Fig. 25.— Uneven at Ground Surface. 
 
 Fig. 26.— Uneven at Coronet. 
 
 Pecularities in the formation of a limb sometimes 
 cause an apparent error in the relative position of the 
 foot. Thus we have horses that turn their toes in, and 
 those that turn their toes out. The cause of this twist 
 takes place at the upper part of the limb, and it will be 
 found that when the toes turn out, the elbow turns in, 
 and vice versa. The farrier can do no good to this forma- 
 tion, and attempts to alter it or disguise it by devices in 
 shoeing are only injurious to the foot, — little deceptions 
 worthy of a horse-coper. 
 
PREPARATION OP THE FOOT. 
 
 41 
 
 A Good Bearing Surface is the primary object 
 aimed at in preparing the foot for a shoe. The relative 
 position of the limb to the foot and the proper propor- 
 tions of every part of the foot are matters to be borne in 
 mind whilst the farrier is directly forming the bearing 
 surface for a shoe. A good bearing surface must be 
 even, level, on sound horn, and as wide as can be 
 obtained, to give stability to the shoe. It should not be 
 limited to the wall. If, without over-reduction, the uso 
 of the rasp leaves a firm portion of the sole as a level 
 surface continuous with the lower edge of the wall, the 
 best of bearing surfaces is obtained. (Fig. 27.) The 
 
 Fig, 27.— a proportionate Foot witli a good bearing Surface. 
 
 bearing surface should be level from heel to toe, and no 
 part of it can be singled out either as unfit to bear weight 
 or as specially capable of enduring undue pressure. No 
 broken or diseased horn should be nsed as bearing sur- 
 face for a shoe. The broken horn should be removed 
 and the diseased horn must, if not entirely removed, 
 have so much of its border cut or rasped off as will pre- 
 vent contact with a shoe. 
 
 After forming a level bearing surface with the rasp, 
 the sharp outer border of the wall is lightly removed 
 with the file, so as to prevent splitting of the horn. Tha 
 
43 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 outer surface of the wall should not be rasped, for it> 
 affords protection to the deeper layer of horn. The- 
 harder the outer layer of horn is kept, the tougher and 
 firmer is the whole thickness. 
 
 The Sole and Frog require very little attention. 
 No sensible farrier now puts himself to the unnessary 
 trouble of cutting away horn that is wanted for protec- 
 tion. It was not the practical farrier that introduced 
 the stupid " paring and cutting " that ruined horses' feet 
 for nearly a century. It was the theorists, who taught 
 expansion of the wall and descent of the sole as primary 
 necessities in the function of a foot, who must be credited 
 with all the evils resulting from robbing the sole and 
 frog of horn. V/hen a horse is shod with an iron shoe, 
 the wall cannot wear, and therefore it has to be artifi- 
 cially reduced at each shoeing. But the shoe does not- 
 interfere with the wear of a frog, a,nd the farrier may 
 safely leave that organ entirely to take care of itself. 
 To some extent, the shoe does interfere with the natural 
 wear of the sole, and, therefore, any flakes of horn which 
 have been prevented by the shoe from detaching them- 
 selves from the sole may be removed. The best way to 
 remove these is with the buffer. "The sole should not be 
 pared out. I mean not only that the horn should be left 
 strong, it should not be pared with a drawing knife, 
 even if only a harmless surface layer be removed. The 
 effect of leaving the sole of a shod foot with a smooth, 
 level, pared surface is to stop its natural method of 
 throwing off more or less broken flakes, and to cause it 
 to retain that which is half loose until it is removed in 
 one great cake. 
 
 A portion of the sole that requires a little special 
 care in preparing for shoeing is the angle between the 
 wall and the bars — the well-known seat of " corn." This 
 must not be left so as to come in contact with the shoe. 
 It is not to be " scooped ' ' out, but it shoiild be reduced 
 distinctly below the level of the wall, so that when th& 
 shoe has been in position for a week or two, there is still 
 no contact between the horn of the soles and the iron at.. 
 that point. 
 
PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 43 
 
 Level or Adjusted Surface? The bearing surface 
 of a hoof mast, of course, be exactly adapted to the sur- 
 face of shoe intended to be applied. Presuming that the 
 best surface for a shoe is one level from toe to heel, I 
 have insisted upon the necessity of a level bearing sur- 
 face on ^die foot. There are, however, exceptional cases 
 in which a level shoe is not used, and then we must alter 
 the foot accordingly. ■ Horses that wear the toe of a shoe 
 out of all proportion to the rest of the iron may bo bene- 
 ficially shod with a shoo turned up at the toe. To fit 
 such a shoe the hoof surface must not be made level; it 
 must be rasped away at the toe and rounded off to follow 
 the line of the shoe. In the three diagrams (Fig. 28) is 
 
 Fto. 28.— Three forms of bearing Surface. 
 
 shown — (a) side view of a foot prepared to suit the 
 turned-up shoe at the toe, (6) a level line to lit a level 
 shoe, and (c) a form often adopted on the Continent, to 
 suit a shoo fitted with a slight curve throughout. This 
 adjusted shoe is designed to imitate the shape of the 
 worn surface of an old shoe, or to some extent the worn 
 surface of an unshod foot. Every farrier knows hoAV 
 many horses go better after a level shoe has been worn 
 a few days than when first applied, and it is argued, 
 with reason, that the greater ease is due to the shoe 
 being worn, to the form offering least resistance to the 
 movement of the foot in locomotion. I have nothing to 
 
44 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 say against tliis form of shoe and the necessary form of 
 foot surface for it, except that it is more difficult to 
 make than the ordinary level one. When adopted, the 
 curve of the foot should not be obtained by over-lower- 
 ing the toe and heels, but by leaving the quarters higher. 
 
 Faults to be Avoided. 
 
 Fig. 29 shows a hoof in which shortening of the toe 
 has been effected not by reducing the ground surface of 
 the wall, but by rasping away the wall in front of the 
 toe. This should not be done with any good foot, but it 
 may be adopted with feet having an unnaturally long 
 toe and no superfluous horn on the under surface. A 
 " stumped-up " toe is very ugly, and it weakens the hoof 
 in front. 
 
 Fig. 29.— a " stumped-np " toe. 
 
 Uneven Bearing Surfaces are easily produced by 
 a careless use of the rasp. One side of the wall may be 
 made lower than the other, one heel may be reduced 
 more than the rest of the foot, or one side of the toe may 
 be unevenly reduced. In Fig. 30, the foot presents an 
 uneven surface which not uncommonly results from 
 careless work. The parts over-reduced are those most 
 easily reached with a rasp. The near foot suffers at tlio 
 outside heel and inside toe. A left handed farrier 
 would injure the feet in just the opposite positions. 
 
 Another fault results from holding the rasp untruly. 
 If we suppose the inside heel of the near foot to be under 
 
PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. 
 
 45 
 
 preparation, and tlie farrier inclines Ms rasj) too mucli 
 inwards, lie leaves the wall at the heel lower than tho 
 sole within it. On such a foot, a level shoe rests upon 
 the sole instead of upon the wall, and a bruised heel 
 soon follows. 
 
 Fig. 30.— Uneven Surface, over-lowsred at Heel and Toe. 
 
 Paring Avtay the Sole to produce a deep, con- 
 cave appearance has another evil effect in addition to 
 that before })ointed out. It removes the horn just within 
 the border of the wall, taking away the natural support, 
 and leaving as bearing surface for a shoe a narrow ridge 
 instead of a strong fiat surface. Fig. 31 shows this fault, 
 and it must be remembered that this ridge may be left 
 as thin as a knife edge. Such a ridge cannot sustain the 
 weight of the horse, and when it yields, the shoe also 
 yields, the clenches are raised and the shoe becomes loose. 
 
 Excessive Rasping of Wall. — The best farriers — 
 those most proud of their work — have a great temptation 
 to use a rasp too freely to the outer surface of the wall. 
 The hoof gets rough, or it may be ridged, its appearance 
 is improved by being made smooth, and it is only human 
 to turn out work which is clean and neat. Owners and 
 grooms are rather inclined to forget the claims of the 
 liorse when judging shoeing, and the result is that some 
 
46 
 
 THE ART OP HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 iiarm is doiio by exce.ssiv3 raspiiifc. A strong foot doesf. 
 not suffer much, but its strongth is preserved by leaving 
 the hard outer surface intact. Rasping off an outer 
 layer of horn favors evaporation and hardening of th& 
 underneath layer, and the toughness so desirable is to-- 
 some degree replaced by hardness and brittleness. 
 
 Fig. 31.— a Pared-out Sole, bars destroyed and bearing surface 
 for shoe reduced to a narrow ridge. 
 
 Excessive rasping below the clenches is even more injur- 
 ious than rasping above them. The wall, between its 
 bearing surface and the clenches, has to withstand the 
 contact of the shoe and the perforation by nails. It 
 should be the toughest and strongest part, and, therefore, 
 should not be rasped more than is necessary to lay down 
 the clenches and finish the fitting. Unfortunately, the 
 neatest work is done by fitting a shoe ' ' close ' ' and then 
 rasping off any protruding horn. This is bad for the 
 foot, as it weakens the wall and spoils the bearing sur- 
 face at each shoeing. The worst offenders in this direc- 
 tion are dealers, who sacrifico everything to appearances 
 and insist upon shoeing being neat at all hazards. 
 
 Opening the Heels is one of the gravest faults a 
 farrier can be guilty of. It consists in cutting away the^ 
 extremity of the wall at the heel and generally a slice off; 
 
PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. " 47 
 
 the side of tlie frog at the same time. The effect is ta 
 produce an appearance of width at the back of the foot — 
 to make what is called "a fine, open foot." Fig. 31 
 shows a foot which has been injured in this way. The 
 wedge shaped opening which results has many objec- 
 tions. It breaks the continuit}'- of structures at the heels, 
 it removes horn unnecessarily, it weakens the foot, and, 
 when the wall is interfered with, it shortens the bearing 
 surface for a shoe. The bearing surface at the back of 
 the foot is perha,ps the most important of any afforded 
 by the wall. The longer the bearing surface is at the 
 heels, the more the base for sustaining weight is brought 
 under tho leg, and the better the position for supporting 
 the body. All removal of horn that shortens this surface 
 is injurious. 
 
 Oyer-Redijction OF Hoof is always a fault. It is 
 true, a carefully fitted shoe on a foot so treated may do no 
 harm for a time. Too much horn should be left rather 
 than too little. A strong covering of horn is a protection 
 against many mistakes in the fitting of form of a shoe 
 applied to a foot. So long as a hoof is everyv>rhere strong 
 enough to sustain pressure and afford bearing, weight is 
 •evenly distributed throughout the whole foot. When 
 the horn is thin, it yields to any uneven pressure, and 
 damage is done to the foot, even if immediate lameness 
 is not induced. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Foals and Unshod Feet. 
 
 Injury to horses may result from want of attention 
 to tlieir unshod feet. At first sight, this statement 
 would appear to suggest that the hoof, in a natural con- 
 dition, was unable to take care of itself. This is not so. 
 When horses without shoes are really in a state of 
 nature they have extensive pasture grounds and un- 
 limited freedom of motion. Growth and wear of hoof are- 
 balanced, and so the foot is preserved in a proportionate 
 shape. Over- wear of horn causes the horse to reat his 
 tender foot, and growth soon brings about a balance. 
 Over-growth cannot take place so long as constant wear 
 accompanies the free movement of the animal. 
 
 The injury referred to is due to excessive growth of 
 horn, which takes place on the feet of horaos that ar& 
 confined in stables or small paddocks where natural use 
 is insuiScient to preserve the balance between growth 
 and wear. Excessive growth of horn causes dispropor- 
 tion in the form of a foot, and ill-formed feet soon react 
 injuriously upon the limb. All horses' feet, as they grow, 
 become long at the toe, and thus the bearing surface 
 upon which the leg should firmly rest, is carried too 
 far forward from the vertical lino of the limb. This 
 injuriously affects the joints and tendons of the leg. 
 Over-grown feet are always too high at the heels, and 
 thus the frog is removed from its proper bearing on the 
 ground, with the consequence that it wastes, loses its 
 function and permits contraction of the hoof. Excessive 
 growth of hoof may also leave one side of the wall 
 higher than the other, a condition which, especially in 
 young horses, may cause a more or less permanent 
 twisting of the foot on the leg. 
 
 The reaction of the limb to distorted forms of hoof 
 and the injury to internal parts of the foot- from dispro- 
 portionate growth of hoof are more serious in young- 
 
 43 
 
FOALS AND UNSHOD FEET. 49 
 
 animals than in those of maturer growth. Tho tissues 
 are more plastic, more easily moulded to external condi- 
 tions and more likely to sulier permanently from inter- 
 ference with their functions, than are the tissues of 
 animals in which development has ceased. Hence it is 
 very necessary to see that tho feet of colts, even of foals, 
 are not permitted to long remain in a disproportionate 
 form. 
 
 Tho necessary interference is very slight. No cutting 
 or paring of frog or sole is required. All that is wanted 
 is a judicious use of the rasp to the lower border of the 
 wall, so that heels are not allowed to lift the frog from 
 contact with the ground; that the toe is not of such 
 abnormal length as to strain the joints and tendons of 
 the leg; and that both sides of the hoof are maintained 
 of an equal height. 
 
 Stud horses, from want of exercise and excessive 
 feeding, are predisposed to disease of the feet. Laminitis 
 is a frequent cause of lameness and even of death in 
 stallions and in mares at foaling time. It would be 
 wrong to say. that this disease is directly due to neglected, 
 disproiDortionate feet, but in nearly every case these 
 conditions accompany the disease, and, according to their 
 extent, aggravate it. I feel certain that more attention 
 to the preservation of a natural form of hoof would 
 modify the violence of many cases, even if it did not 
 prevent their origin. 
 
 In all horses which are prevented by their surround- 
 ings from wearing down the hoof naturally, especially 
 in young, growing animals, a little periodic attention to 
 the hoof would ensure better conformation and more 
 healthy feet and limbs. As a rule, it is the more expen- 
 sive class of horse that is bred and reared in stables or 
 in confined pastures where overgrowth produces mis- 
 chief. The greater then tho economy of intelligent care 
 of the foot in such conditions. Were it possible to 
 always trace effects to their causes, it would often be 
 found that round joints, straight pasterns and bent knees 
 directly resulted from neglect of the feet in unshod 
 young horses. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 The Form and Manufacture of Shoes. 
 
 Horse-shoes are made either by hand or machinery. 
 In this country most are hand-made — the front shoes 
 from new bar-iron, and the hind from old siioes welded 
 together and drawn out under heavy hammers. Probably 
 no method of working iron gives such good results as 
 this in producing a hard, tough shoe that will withstand 
 vrear. The custom of the trade is to keep a stock of 
 shoes suitable for all the regular customers. From this 
 stock are selected sizes and forms, which are then specially 
 fitted for each foot. 
 
 Various materials have been tried in the production 
 of horse -shoes. Leather, compressed and hardened, has 
 been tried, and failed. Vulcanite was experimented with 
 unsuccessfully. Paper, or more correctly, a compressed 
 papier mdche, has also been tested, but proved "unsatisfac- 
 tory. Steel has been pretty largely tried in many 
 different forms, but it is dihicult to temper. As nearly 
 all shoes are applied immediatoiy after being fitted, they 
 have to be rapidly cooled in vrater, and steel treated in 
 this way is raad.e so hard that, if the shoes do not break, 
 the;f are dangerously slippery on most paved streets. As 
 a material for shoes good malleable iron has no equal. 
 It can be obtained in bars of various sizes to suit any 
 form and weight of shoe, and tlie old shoes made from it 
 may be worked up over and over again. 
 
 The chief objects to be attained in any particular 
 pattern or form of shoe are— that it be light, easily and 
 safely retained by a few nails, capable of wearing three 
 weeks or a month, and that it afford good foot-hold to 
 the horse. All sJioes should be soundly worked and free 
 from flaws. 
 
 The first shoes were doubtless appl led solely to protect 
 the foot from wear. The simplest arrangement would 
 
 then be either a thin plate of iron covering the ground 
 
 5a 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES. 51 
 
 surface of the foot, or a narrow rim fixed merely round 
 the lower borJer of the wall. Experience teaches that 
 these primitive forms can be mouified with advantage, 
 and that certain patterns are specially adapted to our 
 artificial conditions. A good workman requires no 
 directions as to how he should work, and it is doubtful 
 if a bad one would be benefited by any written rules; 
 but it should be noted that a well-made shoe may be bad 
 for a horse's foot, whilst a very rough, badly-made one 
 may, when properly fitted, be a useful article. To make 
 and apply horse-shoes a man must be more than a clever 
 worker in iron — he must be a farrier, and that necessitates 
 £b knowledge of the horse's foot and the form of shoe best 
 adapted to its wants. 
 
 AvEioiiT OF Shoes. — The lighter a shoe, can be made 
 the better. Weight is a disadvantage we are obliged to 
 put up with to obtain wear, for the frequent removal of 
 shoes is only a little less injurious to the hoof than 
 working with none at all. It is not to be understood that 
 the heaviest shoe gives the most wear; on the contrary, a 
 heavy shoe may have the iron so distributed as to increase, 
 the rapidity of wear, and a shoe of half the weight 
 properly formed may last longer. It is no uncommon 
 thing to find worn-out shoes still weighing more tha,n a 
 new shoe w] deb will, on the same horse, give p. longer 
 period of wear. When a horse wears his shoes out very 
 rapidly, the indication to the farrior is not simply to 
 increase the weight, but to see if he can obtain more wear 
 by rJtering the form and distributing the iron in a 
 diiicrent w;iy. A tired horse wears his shoes much more 
 rapidly than a fresh and active one. Continued slipi^ing 
 wears away a shoe out of adl proportion to the work done 
 by a horse having a firm foot-hold. These tv/o different 
 •conditions may be partially due to the shoes, for a heavy 
 shoe tires the leg, and broad flat shoes favour slipping. 
 Some horses wear one special part of the shoe excessively 
 — as a rule, either at the toe or the heel — and this is better 
 met by turning up the worn part out of the line of wear 
 than by thickening it and so increasing weight. Besides, 
 
52 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 a heavy shoe requires a greater number or a larger size of 
 nails to retain it securely in position, and this is a disad- 
 vantage. It has often been asserted that a horse "goes 
 better " in a heavy shoe than a light one, and that this is 
 due to the heavier shoe acting as a protection to the 
 foot and warding off concussion. If the term " goea 
 better " meroly means that he lifts his foot higlier and 
 consequently bends his knee more, I do not deny the 
 assertion. The reason of this is not that the horse feols 
 less concussion and therefore goes freer. It is an exag- 
 geration of the natural movements, due simply to the 
 horse with weight imposed on his feet having to use the 
 muscles of his arms more to lift that "weight. The same 
 thing can be brought about by tying bags of shot on to 
 the hoof, v/hich is done to cultivate "action." The 
 healthy foot requires no artificial aids against concussion, 
 but when a foot becomes tender from Dad shoeing it may 
 sometimes be relieved by adding to the substance and 
 weight of a shoe. 
 
 The following are about the average weights, per 
 shoe, of horses standing 16 hands high : 
 
 Race Horses , 2 to 4 ounces. 
 
 Ha,cks and Hunters ., 15 to 18 " 
 
 Carriage Horses 20 to 30 " 
 
 Omnibus " 3 to 3^ pounds. 
 
 Dray '* 4 to 5 
 
 i( 
 
 Thickness and Width of Shoes. — To obtain the- 
 necessary amount of wear froin shoes they must be 
 increased either in thickness or width, and it will assist 
 lis in estimating the relative value of these conditions if 
 we shortly consider their advantages and disadvantages. 
 I may say at once that no sound foot requires a wide shoe 
 merely as " cover" or protection for the sole. Defective 
 soles may sometimes require protection, but sound ones 
 never, and wo may therefore put aside entirely all claims 
 made for widt-h of shoo under pretence that it gives a 
 valuable protection to the foot. A shoe should be as 
 wide as the natural bearing surface of the foot, so that 
 it may occupy the whole of the space offered by nature 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES. 53 
 
 as useful for bearing. Even when it is wider no harm is 
 done until the width is such as to afCord a lodgement for 
 stones, etc. , between the coucaye sole and the web of the 
 shoe. 
 
 A thick shoe raises the foot from the ground and 
 thus removes the frog from bearing — a very decided 
 disadvantage. It also requires the larger sizes of nails 
 to fill up the deep nail holes, and very often renders the 
 direction of the nail holes a matter of some diiSculty. 
 
 The width of a shoe may beneficially vary. It should 
 be widest at the toe, to afford increased surface of iron 
 where wear is greatest. It should be narrowest at the 
 heels, so as not to infringe upon the frog, nor yet to 
 protrude greatly beyond the level of the wall. The 
 thickness of a shoe should not vary, unless, perhaps, it 
 be reduced in the quarters. Heel and toe should, be of 
 the same thickness, so as to preserve a level bearing. 
 Excess of thickness at the toe puts a strain on the back 
 tendons, whilst excess at the heels- tends to straighten, 
 the pastern. 
 
 The Surface of Shoes. — There are two surfaces 
 of the shoe which claim attention, one which is applied 
 to the foot, and another which rests on the ground. The 
 form of these surfaces may be varied greatly, but of 
 course the foot-surface presents much less necessity and 
 less opportunity for alterations than the ground-surface. 
 The foot-surface of a shoe must be formed in accordance 
 with the requirements of the horse's foot, and no other 
 consideration should be allowed to materially modify it. 
 The ground-surface may be altered to suit the tastes and 
 prejudices of the owner as well as the requirements of 
 the horse and the peculiarity of roadways. 
 
 The Foot-Surface. — It is quite obvious that the 
 surface of the shoe upon which the hoof has to rest should 
 be regular and even ; that it should not consist of hills 
 and holes or grooves and ridges. I should not have 
 mentioned such a very evident matter, but that in large 
 towns, the cheaper and poorer classes of shoeing com- 
 monly possess this very fault. When shoes are made- 
 
^4 THE ART OP HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 from thin, wide, old iron tyres they are "buckled" on 
 one surface, and to hide this the farrier puts that side to 
 the foot so that it is not noticed until it causes damage. 
 There are three or four forms of foot-surface adopted by 
 farriers, all of which have distinctive features, a.iid some 
 of which have very grave evils. There is the plain flat 
 surface, which is given to all narrow shoes, to liunting 
 shoes, and to .some heavier and wider shoes. So long as 
 
 Fig. 32.— a level, flat teaiicg-siir face. 
 
 the sole is htalthy and arched this is a very good form. 
 All liind shoes have a flat foot-surface, and most fore 
 shoes might have it with advantage. It utilizes tlie whole 
 -of the natural bearing surface, and must of necessity 
 afford a flrmer basis for the foot lo rest upon than a more 
 limited surface. The fore feet are not so constantly 
 arched in the sole as the hind. Sometimes they are flat 
 and occasionally convex. If a shoe be intended for use on 
 all feet — on feet with convex and flat soles as well as 
 those properly formed — a wide flat foot surface would 
 often cause injury by pressing unevenly upon the sole. 
 To avoid this injury in less than five per cent, of feet, 
 and to save the troiible of keeping in stock shoes of 
 different forms, the flat foot-surface of front shoos has 
 been replaced by a bevelled or ''seated" surface. 
 (Fig. 33.) 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES. 55- 
 
 This form is very widely used. It consists of a narrow- 
 flat surface next the outer circumference of the shoe, 
 about equal in width to the border of the wall, and 
 within that, of a bevelled surface, sloped off so as to 
 
 Fio 33.— A "seated" bearing-surface. 
 
 avoid any pressure on a flat sole. This ' ' seated " surface 
 is not positively injurious, but it limits the bearing to 
 the wall, and neglects to utilize the additional bearing 
 surface offered by the border of the sole. If shoes were 
 to be made all alike no shoe is so generally useful and 
 safe as one with a foot-surface of this form, but it is 
 evident that when the sole of the foot is concave there is 
 nothing gained by making half the foot-surface of the 
 shoe also concave. 
 
 There are two other forms of foot-surface on shoes. 
 In one the surface slopes gradually from the outer to the 
 inner edge of the shoe, like the side of a saucer. In the 
 other the incline is reversed and runs from the inner edge 
 downwards to the outer. This last form is not often used, 
 and was invented witli the object of spreading or widen- 
 ing the foot to which it was attached. The inventor 
 seemed to think that contraction of a foot was an active- 
 condition to be overcome by force, and that expansion 
 might be properly oftected by a plan of constantly forcing 
 apart the two sides of the foot. The usual result of 
 
56 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 wearing such a shoe is lameness, and it achieves no good 
 which cannot be as well reached by simply letting the 
 ^ alone. 
 
 foou 
 
 Fio. 34. — Foot-surface sloped outwards. 
 
 The foot-surface, which inclines downwards and 
 inwards like a saucer, acts in an exactly opposite way to 
 the other. The Avail cannot rest on the outer edge of the 
 
 Fig. 35.~Foot-surface sloped inwards. 
 
 i 
 
 shoe, and consequently falls within it, the effect being 
 that at every ttep the horse's foot is compressed by tiie 
 saucer-shaped bearing. This form of surface (Fig. 35) is 
 frequently seen, and is at all times bad and unnecessary. 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES. 57 
 
 Even when making a shoe for the most convex sole, it is 
 possible to leave an outer hearing surface, narrow but 
 level, which will sustain weight without squeezing the 
 foot. 
 
 At the heels, the foot-surface of all shoes should be 
 flat — not seated— so that a firm bearing may be obtained 
 on the wall and the extremity of the bar. No foot is 
 convex at the heels, therefore there is no excuse for 
 losing any bearing surface by seating the heels of a shoe 
 to avoid uneven pressure. Fig. 36 rather exaggerates 
 the "unseated" portion of shoe. 
 
 Fig. 36.— Foot-surface level at Heels. 
 
 The Ground-Surface.— As I have said, this may 
 vary indefinitely. Sometimes it is a plain, flat surface, 
 broken only by the holes made for nails or by the 
 " fullering" which affords not oiil}'' space for the nails, 
 but some grip on the ground. When a shoe is " fullered," 
 the groove made should be deep, so as to let the nail- 
 head well down, and wide, so as to afford room for giving 
 the nail a proper direction. If tlio fullering be con- 
 tinued round the toe of a shoe by a good workman, neat- 
 ness is given, but when a clip is drawn, the iron is so 
 reduced that some wear is sacrificed. If only an inch at 
 the toe be unfullered, the solid iron affords more wear 
 Just where it is wanted. 
 
58 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 The concave slioe, often described as a hunting-shoe, 
 presents a very different ground-surface from that just 
 referred to. It rests upon two ridges with the fullering 
 
 Fio, 37.— Concave ground-surface. 
 
 between, and on the inner side of tliese the iron is sud- 
 denly slopea off. This shoe is narrow and flat on the 
 foot-surface, and is specially formed to give a good foot- 
 hold and to be secure on the hoof. 
 
 Flo. 38.— Double-grooved ground- surface. 
 
 A Rodway shoe has two longitudinal grooves and 
 three ridges on its ground-surface. The outer groove 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES. 59 
 
 carries the nails, and the inner groove lightens the shoe 
 and increases the foot-hold. It is not the number of 
 grooves or ridges that prevents slipping; it is the absence 
 of a continuous flat surface of iron, and the existence of 
 irregularities which become filled up with sand and grit. 
 A four-grooved shoe has no more anti-slipping j^roper- 
 ties than a three-grooved, and a one-grooved shoe is as 
 good as either, although it cannot stand the same 
 amount of wear. 
 
 Transverse ridges and notches have also been tried 
 as ground-surfaces for shoes, but offer very little, if any, 
 better grip than the longitudinal grooves. Their great 
 disadvantage is that they cannot be mads deep enough 
 without weakening the shoe, whilst, if shallow, thej'' ara 
 worn out before the shoe has been long in wear. 
 
 Fig. 38. — Ground-surfaces, notches, project! ons„ ridges. 
 
 A Calkin is the name given to the extremity of a 
 shoe when turned down at the heels. Calkins are used 
 on most hind shoes and, in some parts of the country, on 
 fore shoes. They are supposed to be the most convenient 
 and effective means of giving good foot-hold. This sup- 
 position is correct when a horse travels on soft ground 
 or on streets so paved that a space is left between each 
 course of stones. They are of very little use on asphalt 
 or wood pavement and not much more use on roller- 
 
<30 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 made macadam. With light, modern carriages and level 
 modern roads, calkins are quite unnecessary, and better 
 means of giving foot-hold may be substitued. It is a 
 fact that horses, when shoes are new and calkins prom- 
 inent, do their work without slipping, and that when the 
 calkins are worn down, the horse moves with less con- 
 fidence and security. This does not prove that calkins 
 are necessary. It must be remembered that horses 
 possess a power of adapting themselves to circum5ta,ivces, 
 but having learned to rely upon any artificial assistance, 
 they are the more helpless, for a time, on its withdrawal. 
 Calkins assist the horse for a time, but after the calkin 
 is worn down, the horse is in a worse position than if he 
 had never become accustomed to its assistance. Of 
 course, on soft ground, especially grass, calkins afford a 
 firmer grip than any other contrivance. On the other 
 hand, their constant use lifts the frog out of bearing and 
 causes it to waste, thus spoiling the action of the natural 
 provision against slipping. Level shoes on the hind feet 
 promote sound, prominent frogs, and give firm foothold 
 for all light horses. Even omnibus horses, now that the 
 vehicles are suppplied with effective foot brakes, may 
 advantageously be worked without calkins On country 
 roads, especially when the district is hilly or the load is 
 heavy, calkins may be requisite, and must then be made 
 to do as little harm as possible. 
 
 The wear of a shoe is affected by the height of a 
 calkin. The more the heel is raised the greater the 
 amount of wear at the toe. Many shoes when worn out 
 at the toe, show very little effects of wear at other parts, 
 and the question arises how best to increase the wear of 
 the shoe without increasing its weight. In Fig. 39, three 
 diagrams are presented, in which dotted lines show the 
 effect of wear. At (a) the shoe is of even thickness 
 throughout — from heel to toe — and tUe line of wear 
 shows that when the shoe is worn out a great amount 
 of iron remains. At (&) the quarters of the shoo are 
 made thinner and the toe is made thicker, so that with 
 no increase of weight but by a better distribution of the 
 iron, increased wear is provided for at the part where 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES. 
 
 61 
 
 it is most required. At (c) is sliowii a slioe similar in 
 form to tliat at (6) but differently fitted. The toe is 
 turned slightly upwards, and the result is that a larger 
 portion of iron is brought into wear. In the case of very 
 
 -(«) 
 
 - (&) 
 
 ^ (0) 
 
 Fig. 39.— The dotted lines show the effect of wear and 
 its relation to the shape of the shoe. 
 
 hard- wearing horses, that scrajje out the toe of the ordi- 
 nary shoe in ten or fourteen days, this form of fitting 
 adds considerably to the durability of the shoe, and so 
 preserves the foot from the evil of too frequent removal 
 of shoes, whilst avoiding any increase of weight. 
 Without calkins, wear is more evenly distributed, and 
 the toe is not worn away disproportionately to the rest 
 of the shoe. 
 
 Fig. 40.— Two calkins — the low square one preferable. 
 
 A calkin throws the leg and foot to some extent out 
 of their proper position. A very high calkin is not only 
 objectionable, it is unnecessary. Not much prominence 
 is required to afford a catch or stop. Excessive height 
 is usually given to meet wear, and this can be obtained 
 
 •equally well by 
 
 increasing 
 
 the width and breadth. 
 
€2 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 I, therefore, recommend that when calkins are used, they 
 shoukl be h)w, square and broad. The further under a 
 foot the calkin is placed, the greater is the raising of the 
 heel, therefore calkins should always be accompanied by 
 a long shoe. The farther back a calkin be placed, the 
 less it interferes with the natural position of the foot. 
 
 Calkins render a horse liable to tread the opposite 
 foot, and the higher and sharper the calkin, the greater 
 the injury inflicted. To avoid this injury, the inner 
 heel of a shoe frequently has no calkin, but is made at 
 the same level as the outer by narrowing and raising the 
 iron at the heel, forming what is called a wedge heel. 
 This is not an advisable form of shoe, as it has on the 
 inner heel a skate shaped formation, most favorable to 
 slipping, and on the outer a catch — an arrangement 
 tending to twist the foot each time the catch takes hold 
 of the ground. If calkins are used at all, they should be 
 of equal height and on both heels of the shoe. 
 
 In Scotland and in the North of England, heavy 
 horses are shod, fore and hind, not only with calkins, 
 but also with toe-pieces, and the owners assert that the 
 horses could not do the work without them. That horses 
 do similar work in the South without calkins and toe- 
 pieces rather shakes one's faith in the assertion, but it 
 must be remembered that nearly all paved streets in the 
 North have a division left between the rows of stones in 
 "which the toe-piece finds a firm resisting surface. I be- 
 lieve also that the average load drawn is greater in the 
 North than in the South. One thing in favor of toe- 
 pieces must be acknowledged — they, with the calkins, 
 restore the natural position of the foot and preserve the 
 level of the shoe. On the larger draught horses, the toe- 
 pieces permit a lighter shoe to be used, as the portion of 
 iron between heels and toe need not be thick to resist 
 wear. It only requires to be strong enough to support 
 weight, and much less iron is therefore used. 
 
 The heavy dray horse of the North, shod with toe- 
 pieces and calkins, is never worked at a trot. In Lon- 
 don, all horses are trotted— a proceeding which reflects'. 
 <liscredit upon the intelligence of the managers. 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES. 
 
 63- 
 
 I must mention another objection to calkins. They 
 increase the tendency to "cut," and iiiany horses will 
 •cease "cutting" after calkins are removed and a level 
 shoe has been adopted. 
 
 Nails and Nail-Holes. — It is necessary to consider 
 these together, as they are dependent on each other. 
 Shoes were first nailed to the feet by flat-headed nails, 
 and probably it was a long time before the wedge-headed 
 nail was thought of. When the nail head fits into the 
 nail hole, it may retain the shoe till it is worn as thin as 
 a x)enny, but if only the shank of the nail enters the shoe, 
 the head is soon worn off and the shoe becomes loose. 
 Within the last twenty years the horse-shoe nail trade 
 has been revolutionized by the introduction of machinery. 
 Machine-made nails are now almost entirely used, and 
 the three or four leading brands are as near perfection as 
 were the very best hand-made. Practically there is no 
 fault to find with them, and as they are ready-pointed 
 for driving, they save time and labor in the forge. They 
 are made in various sizes, and numbered from 2 to 16. 
 Only the very best iron can be used to produce good 
 nails. Nothing is dearer than bad nails, which cause 
 injury to the foot and loss of shoes. 
 
 Fig. 41.— Good and bad nail-holes. 
 
 A good nail should present certain forms of head, 
 neck and shank. The head should not be too broad at 
 the top or it may become fixed in the nail-hole only by 
 its upper edge, as shown in the middle diagram (Fig. 41), 
 and Avhen the shoe has had a few days' wear, the nail 
 loses its hold, and the shoe is loose. The neck should 
 not be too thick, as it is then liable to press on the sen- 
 sitive foot and to break the wall. The shank should 
 
64 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 not be too wide or too thick. The point should not be- 
 too long or too tapered, as this leaves insufficient metal 
 to form a good clinch.. 
 
 There are two methods of putting nail-holes into 
 shoes — by "fullering" and by "stamping." A stamped 
 shoe is one in which the nail-holes are merely punclied 
 at certain distances, so as to leave four- sided tapered 
 holes of the exact shape of a nail-head. A fullered shoe 
 is one having a groove round the circumference through 
 which the nail-holes are punched. Both processes, when 
 well done, admit of nails being driven into the hoof with 
 equal safety and ease. 
 
 Whether stamped or fullered, there are a few more 
 important points to remember about the nail-holes. The 
 wall is not of the same thickness throughout, but 
 becomes thinner towards the heels. The inner side of 
 the foot is also somewhat thinner and more upright than 
 the outer. The safest position, then, for the nails is in 
 the front half of the foot, but should this position not 
 present sound horn, they may be placed further back. 
 The danger of placing nails near the heels is due entirely 
 to the greater risk in driving them through the thin horn. 
 There need be no fear of interfering with expansion. 
 
 The distance of the nail-holes from the outer edge 
 of the shoe should depend upon the thickness of the horn 
 of the wall, and therefore be greater in large shoes than 
 in smaller, and greater at the toe than at the lieels of the 
 same shoe. When the nail-holes are all near to the cir-' 
 cumference of the shoe (Fig. 43 b) they are described as 
 "fine"; when they are all placed far from the edge 
 (Fig. 43 a) they are called "coarse." When the nail- 
 holes are too " fine," a nail has to be driven high up in 
 the wall to obtain a firm hold, and this is liable to split 
 the horn. When nail holes are too " coarse," the nail in 
 driving goes dangerously near the sensitive foot. The 
 evils of coarse and fine nailing depend a great deal upon 
 the method of fitting the shoes. When shoes are fitted 
 full to the foot (when the outer circumference of the 
 shoe is greater than the circumference of the wall) 
 *' coarse " nail-holes are brought to about their best posi- 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES. 
 
 65 
 
 tion. When shoes are fitted close (i.e., wlieii their outer 
 edge is brought within the border of the wall), "fine" 
 nail-holes are brought to their best position in relation 
 to the foot. It need hardly be added that the fit of a 
 shoe ought not to be subject to the position of the nail- 
 holes, but that these should be properly placed, so that 
 fitting be guided only by the requirements of the foot. 
 
 A. B. 
 
 Fig. 43. — Wrongly placed Nail-holes (a too coarse, b too fine). 
 
 Each nail-hole, when proj)erly placed — neither too 
 coarse nor too fine — should be punched straight through 
 the shoe and not inclined either inwards or outwards, 
 except at the toe, where the slope of the wall is followed 
 by slightly pitching in. When a fuller is used, the 
 groove made should be wide; then the farrier has more 
 command over the direction of his nail. If the nail-hole 
 be pitched in, the nail must take that direction and is 
 liable to wound the foot. If the nail-hole be pitched out, 
 the nail is prevented from taking sufficient hold of the 
 horn. 
 
 The position and direction of the nail-hole control 
 the passage of a nail through a shoe and into the hoof. 
 The man who drives a nail is usually blamed for laming 
 
66 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 a horse, but in most cases it would be more just to blame 
 the man who made the nail-holes or fitted the shoe and 
 so rendered safe driving difficult or impossible. 
 
 Fig. 43.— Nail-holes " pitched " in and out. 
 
 Each nail-hole should be as far as possible from the 
 other — say, from an inch to an inch and a half apart. 
 When the two front or toe nail-holes are put too- far 
 back, the whole are crowded, or the last are pushed back 
 too near the heels. 
 
 For small shoes, four or five nail-holes are sufficient. 
 Medium-sized shoes should have from five to seven, and 
 the heavy shoes of big draught horses must have eight. 
 The number of nail-holes need not always be increased 
 in proportion of the size of the shoe, because as the 
 weight of shoe is increased, so is the size of the nail, and 
 an extra strong nail may take the place of additional 
 ones. The fewer nails .in a foot the better, but as a 
 properly-placed nail does no harm, and as the loss of a 
 shoe may be very serious, it is better to have one too 
 many than one too few. 
 
 Machine-made Shoes. — Horse-shoeing is distinctly 
 an art requiring special skill for its proper x>erforixiance. 
 It is also one of the most laborious of all skilled trades. 
 Anything which lightens mechanical toil tends to im- 
 prove the mental and artistic qualities of the workman, 
 and all applications of machinery which lessen the heavy 
 manual labor of the farrier may therefore be looked upon 
 as improvements. Machinery has lightened the labor 
 of shoe-making in two ways — by supplying various pat- 
 terns of grooved and bevelled iron in bars, which only 
 require cutting into lengths and turning round to forma 
 shoe, and also by making shoes all ready to be fitted to 
 
THE FORM AND MANUFACTURE OF SHOES- 
 
 6? 
 
 the foot. Machinery has not yet turned out a shoe as 
 good and durable and well finished as the best workman 
 can produce by hand, but it can produce many forms of 
 shoes as good for all practical purposes, and it has this 
 
 Fig. 44.— Machine-made Shoe— Fore-footo 
 
 a,d vantage— all are alike. Bad workmen make bad 
 shoes, but a machine, once able to produce a good model, 
 ■can repeat it exactly, therefore machine-made shoes of a 
 
 Fig. 45.— Machine-made Shoe— Hind-foot. 
 
 proper pattern are superior to all but the very best hand- 
 made shoes. Economy, of course, is on the side of the 
 article produced by machinery, and all large firms keep- 
 ing their own farriers find a great saving by buying the 
 
G8 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 ready-made shoes. Under conditions when, shoes must 
 be fitted without a fire, as in coal mines, or in the case of 
 armies during a campaign, the machine-made article has 
 the advantages of regularity of form and a true level 
 bearing surface. 
 
 \ 
 
 .■« 
 
 I 46.— Sections of rolled bar iron. 
 
 In little shops where often only one man is at work, 
 either machine-made shoes or prepared bar iron offer 
 great conveniences. The prepared bars can be bought 
 seated on the foot-surface and with a single or double 
 groove on tlie ground-surface. Very narrow bars suit- 
 able for tips, "Charlier," or light hack shoes are now 
 widely used, and a special bar — flat on the foot-surface, 
 concave to the ground — can be obtained which only 
 requires cutting into lengths and turning round to form 
 a first-class hunting-shoe. 
 
 Fic. 47.— Sections of liglit pattern bar iron. 
 
 Both prepared bars and machine-made shoes must be 
 judged by their form and by the material used in their 
 manufacture. Some are better than others, but all have 
 to contend with a large amount of trade prejudice which 
 has little basis, except in the matter of the hind shoes;, 
 here machinery has not yet reached perfection. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Selection of Shoes. 
 
 In practice, a faiTier does not trouble miicli about 
 the selection of suitable shoes. The rule is to apply 
 whatever form of a shoe the horse has been wearing, and 
 only to venture an opinion as to alterations when asked 
 by the owner. When the selection of a suitable shoe is^ 
 left to the workman he takes into consideration the work 
 required of the horse, the form of the feet, and the wear 
 of the old shoes. The form of the old shoes indicates not 
 only whether a horse is a light or hard wearer, but what 
 parts of the shoe are most worn, and thus enables provi- 
 sion to be made against excessive or irregular wear. 
 The form of the feet indicates not only what size of shoe 
 is requisite, but also what special weakness or strength is 
 to be encountered. It is also necessary to note the con- 
 dition of the fetlocks and knees, which may show signs 
 of " brushi)ig " or "speedy cutting." According to all 
 these appearances a shoe should be selected. For the 
 different classes of horses there are well-known forms of 
 shoe which present special advantages, thus: — 
 
 The Race Horse, when in training, may be shod 
 with a very light shoe, but on the turf he requires the 
 lightest contrivance capable of protecting the hoof and 
 affording good foot-hold. The ordinary racing plate 
 answers these requirements. It is made in a " crease,"' or 
 tool, or may be made from specially prepared bars which 
 only need cutting into lengths and turning round. The 
 plate is about one-third of an inch wide by one-eighth 
 thick. The foot-surface is flat,- and the ground- surface 
 is fullered and concave. 
 
 Steeple-Chase plates are made on the same i:)attern, 
 but should be a little stronger, so as to avoid even the^ 
 possibility of becoming twisted on the foot. 
 
 69 
 
70 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 Hunting Shoes should be liglit, very secure, and of 
 ^ form to give good foot-hold. The best are flat on the 
 foot-surface, and fullered and concave on the ground- 
 surface. The hind shoe should also be concave on the 
 ground surface, but to avoid the injury of over- reaching 
 the inner circumference at the toe should be rounded and 
 smooth. A small square calkin at each heel affords grip 
 on grass, and especially in going down hill at a fast pace. 
 
 Hacks, being used on hard roads, must have heavier 
 shoes than hunters, but the form may be the same. 
 
 Carriage Horses require more substance in their 
 shoes tlian hacks, and the narrow concave shoes suitable 
 for hunters and hacks cannot give sufficient durability. 
 The double-grooved shoe known as " Rodway's '' is the 
 best for this class. On ordinary roads the hind feet may 
 be shod with a common two heeled shoe, but on wood 
 and asphalt, the heavier sizes of Rodway iron make a 
 shoe that affords very good foot-hold and dispenses with 
 the necessity for calkins. 
 
 Omnibus and Van Horses require stronger shoes to 
 meet the hard wear entailed by their work. The heavy 
 Rodway iron makes very suitable front shoes, but the 
 hind shoes must be solid with only a fullering for the 
 nails, or, as many prefer, each nail-hole separately 
 stamped. As a rule, the hind shoes of this class of horse 
 have calkins on the outside heel. If the vehicle in which 
 they run is provided with a foot-break, calkins are 
 unnecessary, and the advantages of a level shoe should 
 be made use of. The advantages are — better foot-hold, 
 longer wear and less danger from treads and "cutting." 
 
 Heavy Draught Horses. — In Scotland and in the 
 North of England, this class of horse is shod with a toe- 
 piece and calkins on both fore and hind-shoes. In Lon- 
 don, calkins are only put on the hind shoes, and toe- 
 pieces are not used at all. On paved streets where a 
 space exists between the rows of stones, and especially if 
 the road be hilly, I think toe-pieces are advisable, and of 
 course when they are used, calkins must be also made. 
 
SELECTION OF SHOES. 71 
 
 Horses having become accustomed to toe-pieces, wlieii 
 sliod with a level shoe, slip much more for a week or two 
 than do horses which have never learned to rely upon 
 the bar across the toe. Everything considered, I incline 
 to prefer a level shoe in front, and a shoe with two low 
 square calkins behind for heavy draught horses. The 
 enormous width of shoe often used in London is quite 
 unnecessary, it is very heavy and it favors slipping. 
 A narrower shoe must, of course, be a little thicker to 
 meet the wear, but it is lighter and affords better foot- 
 hold, and as slipping and fatigue are both causes of 
 excessive wear, a narrow shoe, weight for weight, Avill 
 last longer than a broad flat one. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 Fitting' and Application of Shoes. 
 
 Having selected slioes suitable for the feet and 
 -adapted to the special work of the horse, having also 
 prepared the foot for shoeing, we arrive at another 
 important part of the farrier's art— fitting the shoe. No 
 matter what form of shoe be used or how the foot be 
 prepared for it, unless the two are properly fitted, the 
 horse does not obtain all the advantages of good shoeing, 
 and may be positively injured. The owner of horse& 
 seldom knows anything about the fitting of shoes, and 
 therefore fails to appreciate how some of his directions 
 concerning feet and shoes are qiiite impracticable. 
 
 I have, in a previous chapter, attempted to show 
 how a foot should be prepared for shoeing, and what 
 bearing surface should be left for the shoe. I have also 
 described what I consider the best forms of shoe. The 
 object, at all times, should be to follow nature as closely 
 as possible, but it often happens that we may, with 
 benefit, depart from the exact indications given and still 
 fulfil all essential requirements. If we examine the 
 unshod foot which has been worn down to proper pro- 
 portions, we find the bearing surface is not level — it is 
 
 Fig. 48.— Shoe fitted to a curved foot-surface. 
 
 worn more at the toe and heels than elsewhere. If we 
 examine the ground surface of an old shoe the same 
 thing is noticed — the surface is not level, the toe and heel 
 show most wear. The question then arises, should we 
 make the artificial bearing surface of the foot on the 
 same plan and adjust the shoe to it, as in Fig. 48, or 
 
 73 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 73 
 
 sliould we make tlie surface level and apply a level shoe 
 as ill Fig. 49? I believe that the ideal arrangement 
 would be to follow the line suggested by a worn foot or 
 a worn shoe, but it is difficult to carry out, and greater 
 exactness of fit is more readily obtained by two level 
 
 / 
 
 Fig, 49.— Level shoe fitted to level foot-surface. 
 
 surfaces. The ground surface of a shoe may, if neces- 
 sary, be altered to suit the outline of wear, whilst the 
 level foot-surface is preserved. Whatever form the far- 
 rier adopts, a shoe should rest equally throughout, and 
 the contact of foot and shoe should be exact over the 
 whole bearing surface. Assuming then that a properly 
 prepared foot presents a level surface, the fitting of shoes 
 becomes simple so long as the smith possesses manual 
 dexterity and follows the indications of common sense. 
 
 There are two conditions to be fulfilled (1) to fit the 
 shoe to the plain surface of the foot, (2) to fit the shoe to 
 the circumference of the wall. Most amateurs judge 
 shoeing by the way a shoe follows the outline of the 
 hoof, but the practical man knows that it is equally 
 difficult and important to fit the surface. 
 
 Outline Fitting. — A shoe is first compared with 
 the foot, it is then heated, and the heels cut off or turned 
 down to the proper length. Each limb of the shoe is 
 fitted to follow the outline of the wall, and it is necessary 
 to warn the novice than the inside and outside borders 
 of a foot are not alike. The outside is rounder and 
 fuller, and the shoe should be shaped to follow exactly 
 the direction of the wall. The outer border of a shoe 
 should always be as prominent as the outer border of the 
 hoof; it should never be within it. The inner border 
 must not protrude beyond the wall lest the opposite leg 
 "be struck. A well fitted shoe must be fitted full to the 
 
74 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 foot. What is called "close" fitting, i. e., bringing the 
 shoe rather within the circumference of the wall, is 
 injurious, as it loses the best and strongest bearing of the 
 wall, and permits the farrier to give an appearance of 
 neatness by rasping away any horn which protrudes 
 beyond the shoe. On a well-shaped foot, the shoe should 
 follow the outer line of the hoof from toe to heel, but 
 where the heels of a foot are turned inwards, there is an 
 advantage in fitting the shoe wider at the heels, as by sO' 
 doing the base of the foot is not constricted and a wider 
 resting surface is afforded to the limb. When a shoe is- 
 fitted wide at the heels, it is essential that the foot-sur- 
 face of the shoe should be level at the heels. If it be 
 inclined, as it often is in seated shoes, a very grave defect 
 in the fitting results, for the heels have no level bearnig- 
 surface. 
 
 A shoe fitted too wide is liable to be trodden off by 
 the opposite foot, or it may cause the horse to hit the- 
 opposite fetlock joint. 
 
 Provided the nail holes are properly placed, when the 
 outside border of the shoe is fitted nicely to the circum- 
 ference of the hoof, they are brought to their right posi- 
 tion. When nail holes are placed too near or too far 
 from the outer border of the shoe — i.e., when they are 
 too "fine" or too "coarse" — it may be necessary to 
 correct their position by fitting the shoe "closer" or 
 " fuller," as the case may be. When a farrier fits shoes- 
 made by another man he may overlook this, as we are 
 all slaves to habit. The man who in his daily practice 
 combines "close" fitting with "fine" nailing has ta 
 alter his routine when fitting a shoe with coarse nail- 
 holes. 
 
 The length of a shoe at the heels is a matter of more 
 importance than is generally recognized. As a rule, 
 hunters are all shod too short, while most cart horses are 
 shod too long. The objections to a long front shoe are 
 that it is liable to be trodden off by the hind shoe, and 
 that it may injure the elbow when the horse lies down. 
 A long hind shoe is free from both these disadvantages,. 
 and as it usually has a calkin, is the best form to adopt.. 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 75 
 
 111 fitting- the heels of front shoes, in all hut gallop- 
 ing horses, the iron should generally extend slightly 
 behind the extremity of the horn. (Fig. 48.) Horses used 
 for galloping should have the end of the shoe just within 
 the termination of the horn, and it should finish with an 
 oblique extremity. (Fig. 50.) There is nothing gained by 
 
 / 
 
 Fig, 50.— Shoe fitted short at the heels. 
 
 greater shortening, if the iron be fitted exactly to the 
 horn. Why shoes are often pulled off, when only just 
 the length of the hoof, is because they are not fitted close 
 enough, and very often because they are wilfully and 
 ignorantly designed to leave a space between hoof and 
 iron. This so-called "eased" heel is an unmitigated 
 evil. 
 
 Surface-Fitting. — It is simple to direct that the^ 
 bearing-surface of a shoe should be exactly adapted to 
 the bearing-surface of a foot. It is not so simple to carry 
 out. When the horn of the lower surface of a foot is 
 thin, any uneven pressure — i.e., pressure applied directly 
 to one spot — soon causes injury, pain and lameness. 
 When a good thick layer of horn exists, uneven ]3res- 
 sures are less injurious, because the horn distributes 
 them over a wide surface. Good workmanship is dis- 
 played by leaving no uneven pressure, and by so fittings 
 a shoe that it shall do no harm. With a narrow shoe — 
 one only the width of the wall — no uneven pressure can 
 be applied to the sensitive foot, but such a shoe is seldom 
 used, as it is too light to afford sufii(5ient wear. A wide- 
 shoe with a flat foot surface is easily fitted on all concave 
 feet — i.e. , on all hind and most fore feet. To make use of 
 the whole bearing-surface, a shoe must rest evenly from 
 toe to heel — the flat surface of the shoe must take a level 
 bearing on the whole flat bearing-surface of the foot. 
 
76 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 There are two j^laces where injury from uneven 
 pressure is most likely to happen — at the toe and. at the 
 heels. 
 
 In preparing a foot, the wall at the toe may, from 
 want of care, be reduced a little below the level of the 
 sole, or in making a shoe the inside border at the toe 
 may be left higher than the outside. In each case, 
 uneven pressure is placed on the sole just where the back 
 border of the shoe rests. In fitting a hot shoe, wherever 
 the hoof is unduly marked, warning is given that pres- 
 sure at that point must be prevented by altering the sur- 
 face either of the shoe or the foot. On a strong foot, the 
 knife may be used to remove a little horn; on a weak 
 foot, the alteration must be on the shoe. 
 
 At the heel, uneven pressure is most frequent oh the 
 angle of sole between the wall and bar, where it causes 
 the so-called "corn" — a condition in the horse having 
 no analogy to the affliction similarly named in the human 
 subject. It is simply a bruise of the sensitive parts 
 under the horn. 
 
 A bruised heel — a corn — is most likely to arise from 
 the use of a shoe too short, especially if fitted too close. 
 It may arise from a properly- fitted, shoe retained too 
 long on the foot and shifted from its proper bearing on 
 the wall to an improper bearing on the sole. A bruised 
 heel may also result from the use of a well-made shoe if 
 the preparation of the hoof has been faulty. Rule-of- 
 thumb directions to "reduce the heels to a level by the 
 use of the rasp, but on no account cut away any sole," 
 may result in injury. In a strong foot with an over- 
 grown sole it is easy to get a level surface and to fit on 
 to it a level shoe, but the horn of the sole does not remain 
 level. As it grows and flakes off, the portion between 
 the bar and wall is raised. If the weather be wet it 
 swells, and then, bound down by the shoe, it acts simply 
 ns a stone might, and bruises the sensitive parts within 
 by its uneven pressure. It is always safe and it is never 
 injurious to remove so much of the surface of this por- 
 tion of sole with the drawing-knife as will ensure no 
 uneven pressure on it by the shoe. 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 7T 
 
 The more exactly the shoe fits the foot-surface th© 
 more easily it is retained in position by the nails, and the 
 less likelihood there is of any part of it pressing dis- 
 tinctly on a limited portion of horn. Exact fitting 
 allows all bearings and pressures to be distributed 
 equally over the surface of the hoof, and thus permits 
 the shoe most nearly to resemble a mere continuation of 
 the hoof in iron — an arrangement to prevent wear, but 
 not to interfere with natural functions. There is one 
 departure from level fitting which requires special notice, 
 since it is made, not by accident or negligence, but by 
 design. It consists in taking the bearing of an inch or 
 an inch and a half of the extremity of the shoe off the 
 foot. (Fig. 51.) It has been called "easing the heels," 
 
 y 
 
 7 
 
 Fig. 51.— An " eased " heel. 
 
 and the space permits a knife-blade, sometimes even a 
 pencil, to be placed between the shoe and the foot. It is 
 one of the very worst practices that theory has forced 
 into horse-shoeing. Men who do it say " the heels won't 
 «tand pressure." I reply they will stand all proper pres- 
 sure, and a good deal more than the quarters. But the 
 practice does not relieve the heels of pressure. If you 
 ■examine a shoe fitted in this way, after it has done a 
 month's service, you will find it sometimes polished 
 bright, sometimes with a deep groove worn into it. You 
 may also test its bearing by raising the foot from the 
 ground and inserting between shoe and hoof a flat bit of 
 wood, then on releasing the foot and raising the opposite 
 one, you will find that the bearing is such that the bit of 
 wood cannot be removed. The "eased heel "does not 
 relieve the heels of pressure, but, instead of constant 
 normal bearing, it permits a downward movement of the 
 back of the foot at each step — which is unnatural, and 
 
78 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 "wliicli cannot occur in an unsliood foot on a level sur- 
 face. The " eased lieel " does more than this. It wastes 
 a large extent of good hearing-surface, and it concen- 
 trates pressure at one point — where the shoe and foot 
 meet — at the quarters. It loses good bearing-surface- 
 where it is important to have it, and unevenly throws, 
 extra weight on the quarters, which are the weakest parts 
 of the wall. An " eased heel" has not one single advan- 
 tage, but it has every disadvantage which misplaced 
 ingenuity could contrive. 
 
 For flat feet, a wide shoe with a flat foot- surface is- 
 unsafe, as there is liability to uneven pressure on the- 
 sole. For such feet, the safer form of foot-surface is 
 one presenting a level narrow bearing surface round its^ 
 outer border, from which an inclined or bevelled surface 
 continues the shoe inwards. (Fig. 52.) This form of shoe-. 
 
 Fig. 52.— Section of a seated shoe. 
 
 can be fitted to nearly any kind of foot. To escape injury 
 to a flat sole, "seating out" shoes is necessary, but the 
 operation should always leave a level bearing-surface 
 for the wall. When a shoe is seated from one side to the 
 other so as to i^roduce a saucer-shaioed surface, harm is 
 done to the foot. Such a shoe presents no level bearing- 
 surface, and the weight of the horse pressing the wall on 
 an inclined plane causes the foot to be pinched or com- 
 pressed in a manner which soon causes lameness. (Fig. 53.) 
 A few years ago, these shoes were too common, and ta 
 make them still more injurious, the foot was pared out 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 
 
 79 
 
 from the center to the circumference like a saucer, and 
 the two spoiled articles were fitted together. Their sur- 
 faces of contact were two narrow ridges, which even the 
 most expert workman could not fit without injury to the 
 horse. 
 
 Fio. 53.— Section of a "saucer" shoe. 
 
 In Fig. 53, a shoe with an inclined surface is applied 
 ^.o a foot with a bearing-surface as wide as the wall, but 
 tlie only contact is at the edges. The horn at the edge 
 will yield, and the hoof be j^ressed inwards, as the weight 
 of the animal forces the foot into the saucer-shaped shoe. 
 When the bearing-surface of the foot, instead of being 
 as wide as the wall, is only a ridge, the horn yields more 
 rapidly, the clinches rise and the shoe becomes loose. 
 
 In Fig. 54 is shown a section of another shoe with an. 
 inclined instead of a level surface, but the slope is from 
 within outwards. The effect of this is exactly the oppo- 
 site of the previous shoe. The wall is forced outwards, 
 and if it does not as a whole yield to the pressure, the 
 portion in contact is broken. When this form of bear- 
 ing-surface is adopted at the heels of a shoe, the two 
 sides of the hoof are violently forced apart, and it has 
 ■even been recommended as a means of exi^anding the 
 foot; but forcible expansion is both unnecessary and dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 Always regarding the shoe as an extension of the 
 natural hoof in a harder and more durable material, it is 
 ■evident that the most stability will be attained by the 
 
so 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 use of as wide a bearing-surface of foot and shoe as is- 
 compatible with ease and safety to the horse. 
 
 In Fig. 55 is shown a section of a narrow shoe which 
 takes a bearing over the whole extent of its foot-surface. 
 
 Fig. 54. — Bearing-surface inclined 
 outwards. 
 
 Fig. 55. — Narrow shoe with 
 level bearing-surface. 
 
 Ill Fig. 5G is shown a shoe with as wide a bearing- 
 surface as in Fig. 55, but which loses half its bearing 
 because the foot-surface is too narrow to utilize it. 
 
 Fig. 56.— Bearing-surface of 
 foot too narrow. 
 
 Fig. 57.~A good bearing- 
 surface. 
 
 In Fig. 57 we have a model bearing-surface on the 
 foot, nearly twice the width of the wall, and we have a. 
 shoe with a flat foot -surface capable of using the whole^ 
 "bearing. Such is the fitting of all hind shoes, and it 
 might well be adopted with advantage in all fore shoes. 
 on good feet. 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 81 
 
 Clips are tliin projections drawn up from the outer 
 border of shoes for the purpose of giving greater security 
 to their position on a foot. On heavy cart-horses, the 
 clips are sometimes of great size and encourage the idea 
 that the smith looks upon them as designed to assist the 
 nails to retain the shoe on the foot. They should have 
 no such purpose, their use being merely to j^revent the 
 shoe shifting to one side. A clip should not be narrow 
 and high, it should be low and wide, so that its bearing is 
 taken against the lower edge of the Avail. A high clip is 
 a most serious danger when shoes get loose and are 
 trodden on by the horse. The usual position for a clip 
 is at the toe, but there are occasions when two clips — 
 one at each side of the toe — are used. On some shoes, a 
 clip is placed at the outer quarter to prevent the shoe 
 being disx)laced inwards; this is more often required on 
 hind shoes. A clip at the toe affords some assistance in 
 fitting a shoe exactly, and it also affords steadiness to 
 the shoe during the driving of the first nails. In 
 America clips are not used, and when American 
 machine-made shoes were first introduced into London 
 they were fitted without clips. I am bound to confess 
 that these shoes did not shift on the feet to any noticeable 
 extent, but they are now all fitted with clips, so I sup- 
 pose the workmen found they were an advantage. The 
 greatest evil resulting from clips is seen in slovenly fit- 
 ting, when the farrier with his knife carves out a great 
 hole in the wall in which to imbed the clip. As a clip is 
 flat, it cannot be fitted to the rounded face of the wall, 
 but all that is necessary is to reduce the round to a flat 
 surface with the rasp, so that the clip may rest on it, 
 care being taken that at the extreme edge the horn is not 
 left so prominent as to be unduly pressed upon when 
 the clip is driven close to the wall. It is easy to lame a 
 horse by violently hammering up the clip, especially 
 when the horn behind it has been so much cut away as 
 to leave only a thin protecting layer. A clip should only 
 be hammered up sufficiently to leave it firmly applied to 
 the wall. A bad workman, in making his clip, may spoil 
 the foot-surface of a shoe by causing a ridge on the bear- 
 
S2 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 ing- surface of the iron at the toe, and this, on thin or flat 
 feet, may cause lameness. 
 
 A very unsightly appearance and very defective 
 work resiilts from the fireman leaving his clip at right 
 angles to the line of the shoe. It should be inclined 
 backwards at about the same slope as the portion of wall 
 against which it is to rest. The two diagrams (Fig. 58) 
 illustrate what is meant. 
 
 Well drawn clip. Fio. 58. Badly drawn clip. 
 
 Hot and Cold Fitting. — When an engineer or a 
 carpenter has two surfaces to fit together with great 
 exactness he employs some coloring material to show 
 where they do come in contact and where they do not. 
 When a farrier fits a shoe to a horse's foot, he tests its 
 fidaption by applying it at a dull red heat to the horn. 
 This proceeding shows with precision the bearing-sur- 
 faces, as the horn is charred in proportion to the contact. 
 If the shoe be found not to fit exactly, it is taken back to 
 the anvil and altered. It is then again for a few seconds 
 iipplied to the horn and the surface of contact examined. 
 This proceeding is repeated until sufficient exactness is 
 arrived at, and then the shoe is cooled ready for nailing 
 on. As horn is a bad conductor of heat, this process of 
 " hot- fitting " does no harm to the sensitive structures 
 within the hoof, unless it be carried to an extreme. 
 When the horn is very thin, the heat of a shoe retained 
 too long in contact with it does serious mischief, and the 
 injury known as a burnt sole has often resulted from 
 careless work. If a shoe, whilst being altered to fit a 
 foot, were cooled each time it was laid on the hoof, it 
 would have to be re-heated before the necessary altera- 
 tions could be made, and this would cause great waste of 
 time. The abuse of hot-fitting may do harm without 
 any direct burning of the sole. An ill-fitting hot (shoe 
 may be held on the hoof until it beds itself into the horn, 
 and thus a complete correspondence between the surface 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 83 
 
 of tlie foot and the surface of the shoe he effected. Such 
 a proceedmg is well described as " fitting the foot to the 
 shoe," and is not only destructive to the horn but 
 ■damaging to the foot, hy permitting an uneven shoe to 
 look as though it were properly fitting. When hot-fitting 
 is used and not abused — when it is adopted merely to 
 indicate how and where the shoe fits, and not to make it 
 appear to fit — I consider it has many advantages over 
 cold-fitting. With some feet and some shoes it is quite 
 possible to produce a good fit without heating the shoe. 
 When a shoe requires much alteration to bring it into 
 exact correspondence with the foot, even the most expert 
 farrier cannot do justice to his work with cold iron; he 
 gets as near to a fit as he can, and when the hoof is 
 strong, little harm is done. The best work is that which 
 includes the greatest exactness of fit, and uneven pres- 
 ,sure or loose shoes result from inferior work. A badly 
 fitted shoe requires more nails to retain it in place, and 
 experience has shown that hot-fitted shoes give a smaller 
 average of loose or lost shoes than those cold-fitted. The 
 slight charring of the end of the horn fibres, which 
 results from proper hot-fitting, has never been found to 
 do injury, and it api)arently has some advantages. One 
 is that the surface of the hoof less readily absorbs mois- 
 ture than when not charred. Another is that the horn 
 is softened for a time and expanded, allowing nails to be 
 easily driven, and then contracting and retaining them 
 more firmly. The objection to hot-fitting applies only to 
 its abuse. The advantages are greater exactness of fit, 
 greater security that the shoe will be firmly retained on 
 the foot, and greater facility in the operation of shoeing. 
 Perhaps I ought to add that when cold-fitting is inevit- 
 able, machine-made shoes are the best, because they are 
 more regular in form and more often level on the foot- 
 surface than hand-made shoes. Army studs on active 
 service, and studs used in coal mines comprise, perhaps, 
 the only animals upon which cold-fitting is unavoidable^ 
 
 Tips are short shoes protecting only the foremost 
 half of the foot. Upon grass or soft roads, tips are quite 
 
84 
 
 THE ART OP HORSE SHOEING. 
 
 sufficient to prevent undue wear of the hoof. Eveix 
 upon hard roads tips will protect the hoof in dry weather, 
 but in wet seasons the horn becomes softened , and then 
 that part coming in contact with hard road-surfaces 
 
 Fio. 59, 
 
 wears rapidly, and lameness may follow. Tips require 
 more care in use than shoes, because they protect from 
 wear only the toe, and when retained on the foot too 
 
 Fig. 60.— Foot prepared for a tip, 
 
 long a time cause the hoof to become very disproportion- 
 ately long at the toe. In fitting a tip, care must be taken 
 to afford the horse a level surface to bear on. Th& 
 unprotected horn at the back of the foot must take a 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 85- 
 
 bearing on the ground level witli the ground-surface of 
 the tip. If there is sufficient horn on the foot, this can 
 be easily effected by only removing the overgrown wall 
 to just the length the tip extends and leaving the horn 
 behind untouched. Where there is not sufficient super- 
 fluous horn, this method cannot be used, and we apply a 
 tip gradually thinned off towards its extremities. If a 
 little horn can be removed obliquely from the front half 
 of the foot by a few strokes of the rasp, this " thinned "^ 
 
 FiQ. 61,— An ordinary and a "thinned" tip. 
 
 tip is more easily fitted so as to get a level surface on the 
 ground. When a horse has worn this form for a month, 
 it is generally possible to bring a tip, of even thickness 
 throughout, into the same line of bearing as the horn at 
 the heels. 
 
 Tips do not give a good foot-hold on grass, but they 
 afford greater security of tread on hard, smooth roads 
 and on ice than long shoes. The great advantages of 
 tips are two-fold — they are light, and they j)ermit the 
 greatest freedom of movement and action in the pos- 
 terior part of the foot. In some cases of chronic foot 
 lameness the use of tips and regular work will effect 
 soundness when every other method of treatment has 
 failed. 
 
 The Charlier System is a method of shoeing 
 which a few years ago took a very jjrominent hold on the 
 fancy of horse-owners. Like every other system it has 
 advantages and disadvantges — it has prejudiced enemies 
 and indiscreet friends. The principle or theory upon 
 "VV-hich it is based may be thus stated. The lower border 
 of the wall is, it is said, the chief sustaining structure of 
 the hoof, and as all that is required of a shoe is to pre- 
 
-86 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 vent undue wear, therefore, remove a small strip of the 
 lower border of the wall and substitute for it a similar 
 sized strip of iron, and we shall protect from wear at the 
 same time that we leave entirely to nature every other 
 
 FiG. 62.— Groove for Charlier shoe formed by cutting away strip of wall. 
 
 part of the hoof — sole, frog and bars. This seems emin- 
 ently simple and logical, but it is easy to show that it is 
 more plausible than true. First, I would point out that 
 the wall only is not the natural sustaining structure of 
 the hoof; the wall and the sole at its connection with the wall is. 
 Next, I deny that the Charlier system does " leave entirely 
 to nature every other part of the hoof." In cutting away 
 
 Fig, 63. — Section of Charlier shoe on foot. 
 
 the wall from the sole to affix the shoe, the natural func- 
 tion of the sole is seriously interfered with, and the bear- 
 ing on the wall, which ought to be partially distributed 
 over the arch of the sole, is limited to the wall. It is 
 claimed that when the foot has had time to grow, the 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 87 
 
 sole will be found on a level with the shoe, and thus 
 directly sharing in the weight sustaining function. 
 I have examined many feet shod by Charlier specialists, 
 and have never yet seen the sole of a hind foot level with 
 the shoe three days after the shoeing. Only once have 
 I seen the sole of the fore foot level with the shoe after a 
 week's wear. I am often apologetically told, " Well, it- 
 is not quite in wear, but it is not an eighth of an inch 
 below the surface of the shoe." Quite so, it is nearly in 
 wear, but if not actually in wear, what becomes of the 
 princij)le ? The sole is not directly in wear, and bearing 
 is confined to the wall. As to the frog, the Charlier 
 affords no greater use to it than any other shoe of a 
 similar thickness, unless, instead of being placed on 
 
 Fig. 64.— Groove for modified or short Charlier. 
 
 sound, firm horn, it be dangerously let down into the 
 hoof so that its edge approaches very closely to the sen- 
 sitive foot. It is sometimes difficult to arrive at the truth 
 as to the signifiance of the phrase " embedding or letting 
 down" the shoe of the Charlier system. At one time we 
 are assured that "the shoe is not sunk, the sole is per- 
 mitted to grow up." When this is so, very little positive 
 objection to the system can be taken, because the shoe 
 then rests at the same level on firm horn as does any 
 other narrow shoe; but then the frog takes no better 
 bearing than in other systems, and the superfluous 
 growth of horn on the sole is of no value. When the 
 shoe is really " let down " of course the frog does receive- 
 increased pressure — it is forced to share with the wall 
 
88 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 the primary function of sustaining weight instead of, as 
 in nature, taking only a secondary share of such action. 
 It does this at the expense of a shoe placed so close to the 
 ''quick" that if the "upper and inner border of iron be 
 not bevelled off, immediate lameness results. When the 
 Charlier shoe was first introduced, it was applied the 
 full length of the foot, but it was found that when 
 thinned by wear, the heels spread and led to injury of 
 the opposite leg or to its being trodden off. Now the 
 
 Fig. 65.— a Tip laid on, not let down. 
 
 Charlier is only applied like a tip round the front portioa 
 of the surface of the foot, and it therefore partakes of 
 some of the advantages I have credited to tips. It is a 
 very light shoe and only requires small nails to fix it 
 securely, but as the shoe is only the width of the wall, 
 the nails have to be driven solely in the wall, and their 
 position is open to the objection applying to all too fine 
 nailing. The disadvantages of the Charlier are its being 
 "let down " too near the quick, its limited bearing, and 
 its fine nail holes; the advantages are the lightness and 
 the freedom given to the back of the foot, both of which 
 are attainable with a narrow tip not let down. One very 
 apparent effect resulting from the use of the Charlier 
 
FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 89 
 
 system is tlie alteration in tlie action of tlie liorse. All 
 knee action is lost, and some horses go decidedly tender, 
 Avliilst others acquire a low, shooting stride, which is cer- 
 tainly not in accordance with our notior?E of good free 
 locomotion. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 t 
 
 "Roughing.'* 
 
 In winter, ice, snow and frost render roads slippery,. 
 and it is necessary to provide some arrangement whereby^ 
 horses may have the greatest security of foot-hold. In 
 countries such as Canada or Russia, where a regular 
 winter sets in at a tolerably uniform date and continues 
 without intermission for some months, it is easier to 
 adopt a good system of "roughing'* than in Great 
 Britain. There, on a thick layer of ice or snow, sharp- 
 projections on the shoes cut into the surface and afford 
 foot-hold. The edge of the projections is not soon 
 blunted, and when once properly placed, their duration 
 is as long as the time desirable for retaining the shoe. 
 Here, very different conditions obtain. Sometimes a 
 week or two of frost and snow may prevail, but more 
 frequently the spells of wintry weather are counted by 
 days. Two or three days of frost and then two or three 
 days of mud and slush, to be followed by either dry, 
 hard roads or a return of ice and snow, is our usual 
 winter. We require during this time to provide for 
 occasional days, or more rarely for weeks, of frost-bound 
 roads. Our horses' shoes wear about a month and then 
 require replacing by new ones. When roads are hard 
 and dry, we want no sharp ridges or points about our 
 horses' shoes, and yet we must always be able at twenty- 
 four hours' notice to supply some temporary arrange- 
 ment which will ensure foot-hold. 
 
 The necessity for "roughing " and the evil effects of 
 continuing to work unroughed horses on slippery, frost- 
 bound roads is demonstrated in London every winter by 
 a very significant fact. If, after three days of ice and 
 snow, anyone will visit a horse-slaughterer's yard, he 
 will find the place full of dead horses which have fallen 
 in the streets and suffered incurable or fatal injury. A 
 sudden and severe attack of ice and snow half paralyses^ 
 
 90 
 
ROUGHING. 91 
 
 the horse traffic of a large town for a day or two, and 
 many owners will sooner keep their horses in the stable 
 than go to the expense of having them roughed. The 
 loss in civil life from unpreparedness for ice and snow is 
 very serious, but the loss which has fallen upon military 
 movements from similar neglect is appalling. Napo- 
 leon's rout from Moscow in 1812, Bourbaki's flight into 
 Switzerland in 1871, and the Danish retreat during the 
 Schleswig-Holstein war in 1865 are terrible instances of 
 the frightful loss sustained when horses are unable to 
 keep on their feet at a walk, let alone drag guns and 
 wagons over an ice-covered surface. 
 
 A well-managed stud of horses which is required to 
 face all weather and to work every day through an 
 English winter should, from December 1st to March 1st, 
 be shod in such a manner as to be easily and speedily 
 provided with mechanism which will afford secure foot- 
 hold. This may be effected by the use of moveable steel 
 "roughs" or "sharps." Of course the cost is the 
 argument against them, but this should be considered in 
 view of the probability or certainty of loss which will 
 follow from neglect. If we allow common humanity to 
 animals to enter into the consideration, economy will be 
 served by adopting a well arranged system of roughing. 
 Every good horseman appreciates the enormity of over- 
 loading, but neglect of roughing causes just as mucli 
 cruelty. A horse that on a good road can properly draw 
 a ton would be considered over-loaded with two tons, 
 and his struggles to progress would at once attract atten- 
 tion. The same animal with half a ton on an ice-covered, 
 surface would suffer more exhaustion, fatigue and 
 fright, and run more risk of fatal injury than in the 
 case of the over-loading, bat his owner, who would 
 indignantly repudiate the one condition, will designedly 
 incur the other. 
 
 Probably this is only thoughtlessness, but it is a- 
 reflection on the prudence of a manager, and certainly 
 not flattering to the feelings or intelligence of a man. 
 
 There are many ways of providing foot-hold for a> 
 horse on ice and snow. The most simj^le and temporary 
 
93 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 proceeding is to use frost-nails. Fig. 66 shows various 
 sizes and shapes of these articles. 
 
 They are not driven through the hoof like ordinarj- 
 nails, but through the shoe only, which is prepared for 
 their reception at the time of fitting. A shoe to carry 
 frost-nails is fitted c, little wider than usual at the heels 
 and has at its extremities, or more often at its outer 
 extremities, countersunk holes stamped and directed, out- 
 wards, so that the frost-nail can be safely driven 
 through by anyone, and its shank turned down over the 
 
 Fro. 66.— Various frost-nails. 
 
 shoe. There is a difficulty in firmly securing tliem, 
 they are apt to work loose and then become bent and 
 useless. If used on the inside heel of a shoe, they consti- 
 tute a danger to the opposite leg, should they bend and 
 protrude from under the shoe. As a temporary provi- 
 sion against a sudden frost or fall of snow, they are 
 useful, but they are only a make-shift. 
 
ROUGHING. 93 
 
 The more permanent and effective system of '' rough- 
 ing " consists in removing the shoes and turning down a 
 'charp chisel projection at the heels. In very bad weather, 
 a projection edge is also laid across the toe of the shoe. 
 
 The diagrams show the method of "sharping" a 
 front and hind shoe at the heels only. The hind shoe, 
 having calkins, is not much altered. The smith simply 
 converts the square calkin into a sharp-edged one. The 
 fore shoe, having no calkins, is turned down at the heels 
 to afford enough iron to form the "sharp." But this 
 shortens the shoe, and if it be rej^eated two or three 
 times, as it often is, the bearing-surface is spoiled, and 
 the slightest carelessness in fitting the shoe causes a 
 
 -Heels of fore and hind shoes, sharped . 
 
 bruised heel, " Roughing" is generally done in a hurry. 
 A dozen horses reach the farrier's shop at one time and 
 all desire to return to work with as little delay as pos- 
 sible. The work is perforce hurried through, careful 
 fitting cannot be done, and bad-footed horses suffer 
 accordingly. The dotted lines in Fig. 67 show the 
 original length of shoe, and the shortening which results 
 from a second roughing. 
 
 All horse-owners know how many lame horses result 
 from the repeated roughings necessitated by a week or 
 two of wintry weather. Some of this is inevitable from 
 the rush and hurry which cannot be prevented. Valuable 
 horses with weak feet should not be submitted to any 
 such risk. They should be shod with removable sharps. 
 The mere fact of removing a horse's shoes perhaps five 
 or six times in a month must injure the hoof. Add to 
 this the shortening of the shoe, the raising of the heel by 
 the roughing, and the irregular bearing due to hurried 
 
94 
 
 THE ART OF HORSESHOEING. 
 
 fitting, and we have conditions wliicli only tlie very 
 strongest feet can endure without serious injury. 
 
 For heavy draught liorses, and for all where the- 
 roads are hilly, the toes as well as the heels must he 
 *' sharped" when ice and snow are firm on the surface. 
 Fig. 08 shows this arrangement at the toe. The remov-- 
 
 FiG. 68 —Toe sharp. 
 
 able steel "sharps," of which I have spoken, are cer- 
 tainly the least objectionable method of providing foot- 
 hold in winter. They are made in various sizes to suit 
 all kinds of shoes. They vary in shape somewhat, but 
 their form is more a matter of fancy than utility. One 
 
 Fig. 69. — Removable steel sharp. 
 
 in each heel of a shoe is the usual number used, but if 
 snow and ice are plentiful and the roads hilly, two addi- 
 tional ''sharps" may be placed at the toe of the shoe. 
 
 At the time of fitting the shoes, holes are made bjr 
 first punching a round hole through the heels — and 
 through the toe if desired; then the hole is "tapped" and 
 a thread formed to fit it in the shank of the sharp which 
 is to fill it. If the sharps are not immediately wanted,.. 
 
ROUGHING. 
 
 95 
 
 iilie holes may be filled with corks to keep out the grit 
 ^nd dirt. When corks are used, the wear of the shoe 
 causes a burr to form round the edge of the hole, and 
 before the sharp can be screwed in a "tap" must be 
 
 Fig. 70.— steel sharps, screw. 
 
 worked into each hole to clear the thread. One great 
 objection to this method is that as the shoe wears, it 
 becomes thinner, and if much worn, the shank of the 
 "sharp" may be too long, and when screwed home, 
 cause pressure upon the hoof and consequent lameness. 
 To guard against this, steel "blanks" are used to pre- 
 serve the holes, and when a frost comes, they are 
 removed and the " sharps " put in. 
 
 The blanks vary in height, and, of course, those least 
 in height are best for the horse's action, but they must 
 not be allowed to get so worn that it is impossible to 
 remove them. These blanks are shown below. 
 
 Fig. 71.— Blanks, screwed. 
 
 The "tapping" and "screwing" of shoes is expen- 
 sive, and in small shops must be done by hand. In.large 
 shops, a gas engine and a machine would reduce the cost 
 very greatly, and if the system came into general use, 
 this method of providing against frost-bound roads could 
 be carried out at much less cost than now. With a view 
 to economy and simplicity, a sharp has been inventecL 
 
S6 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 wMcli recxuires no screw. The shank may be either 
 round or square. A hole is iDunched in the heel of the 
 shoe and carefully gauged to the size of the shank of the 
 *' sharp." The sharp is then put in and a tap of the 
 
 H 
 
 1 — 1 
 
 1 — If 
 
 Fig. 73.— Steel Sharps and Blank, Plug shanks. 
 
 iiammer secures it. The difficulty is to get the hole in 
 the shoe and the shank of the sharp of corresponding 
 form and size. When this is done, the sharp keeps its 
 place and is not difficult to remove. Too often, however, 
 they are not uniform, and then the sharp falls out or 
 sometimes cannot be removed. When the holes are 
 drilled instead of punched, the fit is more exact, but this 
 only applies to those with a round shank. A slight taper 
 is given both to the hole and the shank of the " sharp." 
 As with the screw sharps, so with these, blanks are used 
 to keep the holes open until the road-surface requires the 
 sharp. 
 
 Fig. 73.— Steel Traps for screwing shoes. 
 
 No sharps should be left in shoes when the horses; 
 are stabled at night, as serious injuries to the coronet 
 may result from a tread by the opposite foot. The 
 coachman or horse-keeper must be supplied with a- 
 
ROUGHING. 97 
 
 spanner to remove the screws, and witli a tajD to clear the 
 holes if blanks are not nsed. 
 
 For roads not badly covered with snow and ice, suffi- 
 cient security is afforded by some forms of india-rubber 
 pads, which will be described in a future chapter. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Injuries from Shoeing. 
 
 Even with the most careful farrier injury may occur 
 during shoeing, or may arise as the result of the opera- 
 tion. Sometimes the foot, from its condition or form, 
 renders an accident possible, and it may be so diseased, 
 or defective, as to render shoeing with safety very 
 improbable. Sometimes the shoe is to blame, and some- 
 times the nail or clip. A few words about each of the 
 common injuries may be useful as helps to their avoid- 
 ance or as guides to their remedying. 
 
 From Nails two kinds of injury may result. The 
 most common arises from the nail being driven too near 
 the sensitive j^arts, and is known as a hind. The nail does 
 not really penetrate the sensitive foot, but is so near as 
 to press unduly uj^on it. This condition causes lameness, 
 which is generally not noticed till a day or two after the 
 shoeing. It is readily detected by the farrier on remov- 
 ing tlie shoe and trying all the tracks of the nails in the 
 hoof by pressure with pincers. When the lameness is 
 slight, removal of the nail and one or two days' rest are 
 all that is required. When the lameness is great, it may 
 be suspected that the injury has caused the formation of 
 matter within the hoof. This must, of course, be allowed 
 to escape, and the services of a veterinary surgeon are 
 advisable. 
 
 Any neglect in these cases, such as working the 
 horse after lameness has appeared, or delay in removing 
 the offending nail, may lead to very serious changes in 
 the foot, or even to death of the horse. 
 
 Another injury caused by nails is from a direct 
 puncture of the sensitive foot. This may be slight, as in 
 cases where the farrier in driving the nail misdirects it 
 and so stabs the sensitive parts, but immediately with- 
 draws the nail, knowing what has happened. The lame- 
 ness resulting from this is' usually slight. Very much 
 
 98 
 
INJURIES FROM SHOEING. 99 
 
 more serious is the lameness resulting from a nail Avliick 
 pierces tlie sensitive foot and is not recognized at once 
 l)j the farrier. As a rule, lameness is immediate, and 
 should the horse perform a journey before the nail is 
 removed, serious damage is certain to follow. 
 
 AVant of skill in driving a nail is not always the 
 chief cause of " binding '' or " pricking " a horse. More 
 often than not the form and position of the nail-holes is 
 the primary cause, for if the nail-holes in the shoe are 
 too "coarse" or badlj^ pitched, it is quite impossible to 
 safely drive nails through them. Sometimes the nails 
 are defective, and this was much more common when. 
 nails were all hand- made. Bad iron or bad workman- 
 ship led to nails splitting within the hoof, and whilst 
 one half came out through the wall, the other portion 
 turned in and penetrated the sensitive foot, causing a 
 most dangerous injury. The best brands of machine- 
 mado nails, now generally used, are remarkably free 
 from this defect. 
 
 No lameness resulting from injury by a nail should 
 be neglected. If detected and attended to at once, few 
 cases are serious. If neglected, the very simplest may 
 end in permanent damage to the horse. By treating 
 these accidents as unpardonable, horse-owners rather 
 encourage farriers to disguise them or to not acknowledge 
 them. If the workman would always be careful to 
 search for injury, and when he found it acknowledge the 
 accident, many simple cases would cease to develop into 
 serious ones. Frank acknowledgment is always best, 
 but is less likely to take place when it is followed by 
 unqualified blame than when treated as an accident which 
 may have been accompanied by unavoidable difficulties. 
 
 From Clips lameness may arise. A badly drawn 
 olip is not easily laid level and flat on the wall. When 
 hammered down excessively, it causes pressure on the 
 sensitive foot, and lameness. When side clips are used — 
 one each side of the foot — it is not difficult to cause lame- 
 ness by driving them too tightly against the wall. They 
 then hold the hoof as if in a vise. When shoes get loose 
 
100 THE AKT OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 or are partially torn off, the horse may tread on the clip, 
 and if it be high and sharp, very dangerous wounds 
 result. 
 
 From the Shoe, injury results from any uneven 
 pressure, especially when the horny covering of the foot 
 is weak and thin. The horn becomes broken and split, 
 and the bearing for a shoe is more or less spoiled. Flat 
 feet are liable to be bruised by the pressure of the inner 
 circumference of the shoe at the toe. Lameness from 
 this cause is easily detected by removing the shoe and 
 testing the hoof with the pincers. If attended to at once, 
 and the bearing of the shoe removed from the part little 
 injury results. If neglected, inflammatory changes in 
 the sensitive parts are sure to arise. 
 
 Corns in horses are due to bruising of the angle of 
 the sole by the heel of the shoe. A wide open foot with 
 low heels is most likely to suffer, but any foot may be 
 injured. The most common seat of injury is the inner 
 heel of a fore-foot. Even a proj)erly fitted shoe may 
 cause a corn if retained too long upon a foot, as then, 
 owing to the growth of the hoof, its extremity is carried 
 forward from beneath the wall so as to press upon the 
 sole. A short shoe, fitted too close on the inside, is the 
 most common cause of corn. To guard against the shoe 
 being trodden on by the opposite foot, the inside is 
 generally fitted close, and to guard against being trodden 
 on by the hind foot it is often fitted short. Thus to pre- 
 vent accidents of one kind methods are adopted which, 
 being a little overdone, lead to injury of another. A not 
 uncommon error in the preparation of the foot for 
 shoeing may also lead to the production of the so-called 
 corn. If the wall on the inside heel be lowered more 
 than it should be, the horn of the sole is left higher than 
 the wall, and then a level shoe presses unevenly upon the 
 higher part. 
 
 A corn, be it remembered, is not a tumor or a growth, 
 it is merely a bruise of the sensitive foot under the horn 
 of the sole. It shows itself by staini)ig the horn red, just 
 as a bruise on the human body shows a staining of tho 
 
INJURIES FROM SHOEING. 
 
 ICl 
 
 skin above it To "cut out a corn " witli the idea of 
 removing it is simply an ignorant x^roceeding. If a corn 
 "be slight, all that is necessary is to take off the pressure 
 of the shoe, and this is assisted by removing a thin slice 
 or two of horn at the part. When the injury is very 
 great, matter may be formed under the horn, and, of 
 course, must be let out by removal of the horn over it. 
 Provided there is no reason to believe that matter has 
 formed, a corn, i. e., the bruised and discolored horn, 
 should not be dug out in the ruthless manner so com- 
 monly adopted. Cutting away all the horn of the sole at 
 the heels leaves the wall without any support. When 
 the shoe rests upon the wall it is unable to sustain the 
 weight without yielding, and thus an additional cause of 
 irritation and soreness is manufactured. The excessive 
 paring of corns is the chief reason of the difficulty of 
 getting permanently rid of them. The simplest device for 
 taking all pressure off a corn is to cut off an inch and a 
 half of the inner heel of the shoe. With the three-quar- 
 ter shoe (Fig. 74) a horse will soon go sound, and his foot 
 
 Fig. 74.— Three-quarter Shoe, 
 
 will then resume its healthy state. The saying ' ' once a 
 corn, always a corn " is not true, but it is true tliat a 
 "bruised heel is tender and liable to bruise again, from, 
 very slight unevenness of pressure, for at least three- 
 
102 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 moiitlis. All tliat is necessary is care in fitting and 
 abstention from removal of too much horn at the part. 
 Of course, when the degree of lameness is such as to 
 suggest that matter is formed, the horn must be cut 
 away, so as to afford an exit for it, but the majority of 
 corns are detected long before the stage of suppuration 
 has resulted from a bruise. 
 
 A Burnt Sole. — In fitting a hot shoe to a foot it 
 sometimes happens that the sensitive parts under the 
 sole at the toe are injured by heat. This is most likely 
 to occur with a foot on which the horn is thin, especially 
 if it also be flat or convex. Burning the sole is an injury 
 which must be put clown to negligence. It does not 
 occur from the shoe being too hot, but from its being too 
 long retained, and may be expected when the fireman is 
 seen holding a dull-red hot shoe on to a foot, with a 
 doorman assisting to "bed it in" by pressing it to the 
 foot with a rasp. When the heat of a shoe penetrates 
 through the horn with sufficient intensity to blister the 
 sensitive parts of the foot, great pain and lameness 
 result. In many cases, separation of the sole from the 
 '" quick " takes place, and some weeks i)ass before the 
 horse can resume work. 
 
 Treads are injuries to the coronet caused by the 
 shoe of tlie opposite foot, and are usually found on the 
 front or inside of the hind feet. The injury may take 
 the form of a bruise and the skin remain unbroken, it 
 may ax3pear as a superficial jagged wound, or it may take 
 the form of a tolerably clean cut, in which case, although 
 at first bleeding is very free, ultimate recovery is rapid. 
 Bruises on the coronet — just where hair and hoof meet — 
 are always to be looked upon as serious. The slighter 
 cases, after a few days' pain and lameness, pass away, 
 leaving only a little line showing where the hoof has 
 separated from the skin. This separation is not serious 
 unless a good deal of swelling has accompanied it, and 
 even then only time is required to effect a cure. In more 
 serious cases, an extensive slough takes place, and the 
 coronary band, Avhich secretes the wall, may be damaged. 
 
IN JURIES k FROM SHOEING. 103 
 
 The worst cases are tliose in wliicli deep seated abscesses 
 occur, as they often terminate in a "qnittor." The 
 farrier should always recognize a tread as possibly dan- 
 gerous and obtain X)rofessional advice. 
 
 It is a common custom to rasp away the horn of the 
 wall immediately beneath any injury of the coronet, but 
 it is a useless proceeding, which weakens the hoof and 
 does no good to the inflamed tissues above or beneath. 
 
 Treads are most common in horses shod with heavy 
 shoes and high calkins — a fact which suggests that a low, 
 square calkin and a shoe fitted not too wide at the heels 
 is a possible preventive. 
 
 "Cutting" or "Brushing." 
 
 By these terms is meant the injury to the inside of 
 the fetlock joint which results from bruising by the 
 opposite foot. Possibly some small proportion of such 
 injuries are traceable to the system of shoeing, to the 
 form of shoe, or to the, action of the horse. They are, 
 with few exceptions, the direct result of want of condi- 
 tion in the horse and are almost confined to young horses, 
 old, weak horses, or animals that have been submitted to 
 some excessively long and tiring journey. The first thing 
 a horse-owner does when his horse " brushes " is to send 
 him to the farrier to have his shoes altered. In half the 
 cases there is nothing wrong with the shoes, and all that 
 is required is a little patience till the horse gains hard 
 condition. At the commencement of a coaching season, 
 half the horses " cut " their fetlocks, no matter how they 
 are shod. At the end of the season, none of them touch 
 the opposite joint, with perhaps a few exceptions afflicted 
 with defective formation of limb, or constitutions that 
 baffle all attempts at getting hard condition. The same 
 thing is seen in cab and omnibus stock. All the new 
 horses "cut" their legs for a few weeks. The old ones^ 
 with a few exceptions, work in any form of shoe, but 
 never touch their joints. They "cut" when they are 
 out of condition — when their limbs soon tire; but they 
 never "cut" when they are in condition — when they 
 have firm control of the action of their limbs. There are. 
 
104 
 
 THE ART OP HORSE- SHOEING. 
 
 however, a few liorses that are always a source of trouble, 
 and there are conditions of shoeing which assist or pre- 
 vent the injury. The hind legs are the most frequently 
 affected, and this because of the calkins. Many horses 
 will cease "cutting" at once if the calkins of the shoes 
 be removed and a level shoe adopted. There are certain 
 forms of shoe which are supposed to be specially suitable 
 as preventives. A great favorite is the " knocked-up 
 shoe," i. e., a shoe with no nails on the inside, except at 
 the toe, and a skate-shaped inner branch. 
 
 Fig. 75.—" Knocked-up " Shoes— with and without an inner Calkin. 
 
 These shoes are fitted not only close to the inner 
 border of the wall, but within it, and the horn at the toe 
 is then rasped off level with the shoe. Whether they are 
 of any use is a question, but there is no question of the 
 harm they do to the foot. Some farriers are partial to a 
 three-quarter shoe — one from which a couple of inches of 
 the inside heel has been removed. Some tliicken the out- 
 side toe, some the inside toe. Some raise one heel, some 
 the other, and some profess to have a principle of fitting 
 the shoe based upon the formation of the horse's limb 
 and the peculiarity of his action. If in practice success 
 attended these methods, I should advise their adoption, 
 but my experience is that numerous farriers obtain a 
 special name for shoeing horses that " cut," when their 
 
INJURIES frOxM: shoeing. 
 
 105 
 
 methods, applied to quite similar cases, are as antagonis- 
 tic as the poles. A light shoe without calkins has at any 
 rate negative properties— it will not assist the horse to 
 injure himself. For all the other forms and shapes I 
 have a profound contempt, but as people will have 
 changes, and as the most marked departure from the 
 ordinary seems to give the greatest satisfaction, it is 
 perhaps " good business " to supply what is appreciated. 
 The two great cures for "cutting" are — regular 
 work and good, old beans. When a man drives a horse 
 forty miles in a day at a fast pace he, of course, blames 
 the farrier for all damage to the fetlocks. He is merely 
 illogical. 
 
 Over-Reaching. 
 
 This is an injury to the heel — generally the inner — 
 of a front foot. The heel is struck by the inner border 
 of the toe of the hind shoe. Over-reach occurs at a 
 gallop in this country, but is seen in America as the 
 
 Fig. 76. — Toe of hind shoe showing the edge which cuts the heel of fore-foot. 
 
 result of a mis-step in the fast trotters. An over-reach 
 can only occur when the fore- foot is raised from the 
 ground and the hind foot reaches right into the hollow of 
 the fore-foot. When the fore and hind feet in this posi- 
 tion separate, the inner border of the toe of the hind shoe 
 catches the heel of the fore-foot and cuts off a slice. This 
 cut portion often hangs as a flap, and when it does, tha 
 attachment is always at the back, showing that the 
 injury was not from behind forwards, as it would be if 
 
106 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 caused by a direct blow, but from before backwards; irt 
 other words, by a dragging action of the hind foot as it 
 leaves the front one. An over-reach then may result, 
 either from the fore-limb being insufficiently extended, 
 or from the hind-limb being over extended. 
 
 The prevention of this injury is effected by rounding 
 off the inside edge of the hind shoe as shown below. 
 
 Fig. 
 
 -Toe of hind shoe showing rounded inside border. 
 
 Speedy-Cut. 
 
 This is an injury inflicted on the inner surface of 
 the lower part of the knee joint by a blow from the toe 
 of the shoe of the opposite foot. It occurs at a trot, 
 and very seldom, excex)t when a horse is tired or over- 
 paced. A horse that has once " speedy-cut" is apt to do 
 so again, and it may cause him to fall. Such horses 
 should be shod " close " on the inside, and care should be 
 taken that the heel of the foot which strikes should be 
 kept low. In some cases, a three-quarter shoe (see 
 Fig. 74) on the offending foot prevents injury. 
 
 "Forging:" or "Clacking." 
 
 This is not an injury, but an annoyance. It is the 
 noise made by the striking of the hind shoe against the 
 front as the horse is trotting. Horses " forge " when 
 young and green, when out of condition or tired. As a 
 rule, a horse that makes this noise is a slovenly goer, and 
 will cease to annoy when he gets strength and goes up to 
 his bit. Shoeing makes a difference, and in some cases 
 
INJURIES FROM SHOEING. 107 
 
 at once stops it. The i^art of the front shoe struck is the 
 inner "border round the toe. (Fig. 78.) The part of the 
 
 Fig. 78.— Toe of fore shoe. The arrows mark the place struck in " forging." 
 
 hind shoe that strikes is the outer border at the inside 
 and outside toe. (Fig. 79.) 
 
 Fig. 79.— Toe of hind shoe showing the edge which strikes the fore shoe. 
 
 Fig. 80.-Toe of fore shoe with inner border bevelled off. 
 
 To alter the fore shoe, round off the inner border; or 
 use a shoe with no inner border, such as the concave 
 
108 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 hunting shoe. To alter tlie toe of the hind shoe is useless, 
 but by using a level shoe without calkins some advan- 
 tage is gained. A so-called "diamond-toed" shoe has 
 been recommended. It is not advisable, as it does no 
 goodj except by causing its point to strike the sole of the 
 front foot. If by such a dodge the sound is got rid of, it 
 is only by running the risk of injuring the foot. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Shoeing Bad Feet. 
 
 Any average farrier can shoe without immediate 
 harm a good, well- formed foot that has a thick covering 
 of horn, but when the horn is deficient in quantity or 
 quality, injury soon takes place if a badly fitted shoe be 
 applied. There are feet which from disease or accident 
 or bad shoeing have become, more or less, permanently 
 damaged. Some are seriously altered in shape. Some 
 are protected only by an unhealthy horn, and some show 
 definite changes which cause weakness at a special part. 
 These are the feet which really test the art of the 
 farrier, for he must know just what to do and what not 
 to do, and must possess the skill to practice what he 
 knows. 
 
 Flat Feet. — Some horses are born with flat feet, 
 others acquire them as the result of disease. Too often 
 the flat sole has another defect accompanying it — low, 
 weak heels. Such feet are best shod with a seated shoe 
 so as to avoid any uneven pressure on the sole, and the 
 shoes should always be fitted a little longer than the 
 bearing-surface of the foot, so as to avoid any risk of 
 producing a bruise at the heel — in other words, of causing 
 a corn. The seated shoe is not advisable on a hunter. 
 The concave shoe used for hunters has many distinct 
 advantages and only one disadvantage for a flat foot, 
 viz., that it has a wide, flat foot-surface. It may cause 
 an uneven pressure at the toe on a flat sole, but this is 
 easily avoided by not making it too wide; perhaps the 
 very worst thing to do with a flat foot is to try and make 
 it look less flat by paring it down. The thinner the horn 
 the greater the chance of injury to the sensitive parts 
 under it, and every injury tends to make the sole 
 weaker. Leaving the sole strong and thick, whilst 
 fitting the shoe to avoid uneven pressure, is the principle 
 of shoeing to be adopted with flat feet. 
 
 lOS 
 
110 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 Convex Soles.— The sole of tlie foot should be con- 
 cave, but as tlie result of disease many feet become con— 
 vex. This bulging or " dropping " of the sole varies iii 
 degree from a little more than flat to an inch or so below 
 the level of the wall. When the under-surface of a 
 horse's foot resembles in form the outside of a saucer, 
 fitting a shoe becomes a Avork of art. Very often the 
 "wall is brittle and broken away, and it is most difficult- 
 to find sufficient bearing-surface on the foot for a shoe. 
 Many of these feet may be safely shod with a narrow 
 shoe that rests only on the wall and the intermediate 
 horn between the wall and sole. Such a shoe may, 
 according to the size of the foot, be five-eighths or even 
 three-quarters of an inch wide. Its thickness is to be 
 such as will prevent the sole taking any direct bearing 
 on the ground, and sometimes a shoe of this form is 
 much thicker than it is wide. The advantage of this 
 shoe is that it is so narrow that any bearing on the sole 
 is avoided. The disadvantage is that on rough roads the 
 sole may be bruised by the flint or granite stones. When 
 the horn of a "dropped " sole is A^ery thin, or when the 
 horse has to woi-k on roads covered with sharp, loose 
 stones, some cover for the sole is necessary, and the- 
 narrow shoe is not practicable. To provide cover for the 
 sole, the web of the shoe has to be wide, and therefore 
 
 the foot-surface of the shoe must be seated out, so as to- 
 
 improper bearing-surface. Fig. 81. A level bearing-surface. 
 
 avoid contact Avith the sole. Too often the seating is 
 continued from the inner to the outer border of a shoe, 
 so that no le.ve\ bearing-surface is provided for the wall 
 to rest on. This kind of shoe is like the hollow of a 
 saucer, and, when applied to a foot, is certain to cause 
 lameness sooner or later. Each time the horse rests his. 
 "weight on it the hoof is compressed by the inclined sur- 
 face of the shoe, which, instead of providing a firm 
 
SHOEING BAD FEET. 
 
 Ill 
 
 "bearing-surface, affords only an ingenious instrument of 
 torture. 
 
 In even fhe worst of tliese deformed feet some good, 
 sound horn is to be found at the heels, where an inch or 
 sometimes two can be utilized for level bearing. No 
 matter how much seating is required at the toe and 
 quarters, the heel of the shoe may always be' made level. 
 
 It cannot be too strongly urged that in the prepara- 
 tion of feet Avith bulging soles no horn is to be removed 
 from the sole. The toe is to be shortened, the heels 
 lowered proportionately, and the bearing-surface of the 
 wall made level with a rasp. At no place must the shoe 
 rest on the sole. In nearly every case, the toe is left too 
 long and the bearing taken upon it by the shoe only 
 increases the deformity. In many feet, a large slice 
 might be sawn off the toe with advantage, as the sensi- 
 tive foot is separated from the Avail by a mass of diseased 
 horn which presses the wall at the toe forward. (Fig. 83.) 
 
 
 Fig. 82. 
 Dei'crniity resulting 
 from laminitis. 
 
 Fig 83.— Section showing 
 
 liow front of wall is separated 
 
 from sensitive laminae. 
 
 Sandcracks. — This is the name given to cracks in 
 the wall, which commence at the coronet and extend 
 downwards. From their position at the toe, or at the 
 side of the hoof, they are sometimes called respectively 
 " toe-cracks " and " quarter- cracks." The crack may be 
 very slight and may exist without causing lameness. It 
 may appear suddenly, accompanied by great lameness 
 and by the issue of blood from between the edges of the 
 divided Avail. These are grave cases Avhich require 
 ^surgical attendance. Sandcracks are most commonly 
 
113 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE SHOEING. 
 
 seen in dry brittle feet, and the horses most subject to 
 them are those employed in heavy draught work. Rail- 
 ■way shunt-horses and omnibus horses are very liable to 
 be troubled with sandcracks in the toe of the hind feet. 
 In shoeing for this defect, there are two things to 
 avoid: (a) not to place any direct pressure on the part; 
 (&) not to fit a shoe which will tend to force the crack 
 open. Following these lines, it is well not to put a clip 
 exactly over a crack. If at the toe, i^lace a clip each side 
 of the crack, and never use calkins or high heels, which 
 throw the weight forward. If at the quarter, avoid a 
 springdiceled shoe which permits the downward move- 
 ment of the foot behind the crack and so forces it open. 
 In all cases, after fitting the shoe level to the foot, remove 
 a little more horn just below the crack, so as to relieve 
 the direct bearing on the part. (Fig. 84.) 
 
 Fig. 84. —Horn removed to 
 prevent pressure. 
 
 Fig. 85.— Bearincr relieved at wronErplace- 
 
 by ' spriiigiug-" the heel. 
 
 In the case of crack extending the whole space of the 
 wall, some provision should always be made to keep it- 
 
 mimMmm. 
 
 Fig. 86.— French cHp In quarter. 
 
 Fig. 87.— Clips in toe. 
 
 from opening, because every step of the horse, especialljr 
 when drawing a load, causes an outward pressure at the 
 coronet. This pressure forces the hoof apart, and the. 
 
SHOEING BAD FEET. 
 
 113 
 
 injury caused does not cease witli the pain and lameness 
 wliicli follow, and wliicli may be temporary. Doubtless, 
 the original cause of a sandcrack is some morbid condi- 
 tion of the coronary band — the band from which the 
 ■wall grows. The sensitive lamina? are at first not affected 
 
 further than by the inflamma- 
 tion consequent upon the direct 
 tearing which occurs when the 
 crack takes place. The con- 
 tinued irritation, kept up by a 
 persistent fissure in the horn 
 covering the laminae, soon 
 causes other serious changes 
 which tend to make the sand- 
 crack a permanent disease. 
 Thus, even the smallest crack 
 should be attended to and 
 measures adopted to prevent its 
 enlargement, or, when exten- 
 sive, to limit all opening and 
 shutting movement of the hoof. 
 This is sometimes attempted 
 by a simple leather strap tightly 
 applied, or by binding the foot 
 with string or tape. Tape is 
 less liable to slip than string. 
 When the hoof is sufficiently 
 thick, two )iails may be driven 
 in opposite directions transver- 
 sely through the crack and 
 clinched; or French sandcrack- 
 clii)s (Figs. 8G and 87) may be 
 used, which are easily applied. 
 The instruments necessary are 
 shown in Fig. 88. The iron (b) 
 is made red-hot and pressed on 
 the hoof across the crack, so as 
 to burn a groove each side of it. Into these grooves the 
 clip (a) is put, and the pincers {c) are then used to com- 
 press the clip firmly into its place. There is a strain 
 
 Fig. 88. 
 
114 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 upon tlie clips, and sometimes one breaks. It is there- 
 fore necessary always to use two, and for an extensive 
 crack three may be employed. 
 
 All these appliances tend to keep the lips of the crack 
 from separating, but they do not prevent the edges of a 
 deep, wide crack from being forced together, and thus 
 pinching the sensitive parts. To provide against this 
 injury, a slij) of hard wood may be fitted into the crack, 
 and then the nails or clips may be more safely drawn 
 tight without fear of injury, and with a better chance of 
 preventing any movement in the edges of the crack. To 
 insert the wood, the crack is converted into a groove 
 nearly as deep as the wall, about three-eighths of an inch 
 wide, with straight sides, or, better still, with a little 
 greater width at the bottom than at the surface. ■ Into 
 such a groove, a piece of wood formed to fit it is gently 
 driven from below and rasped off to fit exactly. Or 
 softened gutta-percha may be pressed firmly into the 
 space and levelled off when cold. . 
 
 To "cut out " a sandcrack, except for the purpose of 
 refilling it, is bad practice, as it favors movement and 
 helps to make the defect permanent. To rasp away the 
 horn so that only a thin layer is left is also injurious. 
 
 Fig. 89.— Shoe with heel clips for sandcrack. 
 
 No horn should be removed, except for the fitting of a 
 plug, as above described, or, under veterinary direction, 
 for the x^urpose of giving vent to matter which has 
 formed within the hoof. 
 
SHOEING BAD FEET. 115 
 
 In many European countries, a shoe is used for toe- 
 cracks whicli lias two clips drawn on the inside border of 
 the shoe at the heels. These clips catch the bars of the 
 hoof and prevent the heels of the foot closing in. The 
 idea is that when the wall at the heels contracts, there is 
 a tendency for the wall at the toe, if separated by a 
 crack, to open. Fig. 89 shows the position of the clips, 
 which must be carefully fitted, so as to rest on the inside 
 of the bars. Mr. Willis, V.S., has tried these shoes and 
 speaks well of their utility. 
 
 When the crack is in the quarters of the foot, it is 
 not the tendency to expansion of the hoof that has to be 
 guarded against. It is the downward motion of the 
 heels that forces open a crack in this position. The 
 farrier provides against this by taking care to have a 
 firm bearing of the shoe on the hoof behind the crack, as 
 shown in Fig. 84. 
 
 Contracted Feet. — Some diseases of the foot lead 
 to contraction of the hoof, which is most noticeable 
 round the coronet and at the heels. Any long continued 
 lameness, which prevents the horse placing the usual 
 weight on the foot, may be accompanied by contraction. 
 Constant cutting away of the bars and paring the frog, 
 so that it takes no contact with the ground, also leads to 
 shrinking in of the heels. By lowering the heels and 
 letting the frog alone, many feet will in time widen out 
 to their proper size, but no system of shoeing is so good 
 for contracted feet as the use of tips, which leave the 
 whole back part of the hoof to take direct bearing on the 
 ground. 
 
 Many shoes have been invented for forcing open the 
 heels of contracted feet. Some* have had a hinge at the 
 toe and a moveable screw at the heel. Some have had 
 the bearing- surface at the heels made with a slope out- 
 wards (see Fig. 54, page 80), so that the weight of the 
 horse should constantly tend to force the heels apart. 
 There is no necessity for any of these contrivances. 
 A properly fitted tip (see Fig. GO, page 84) will permit 
 the hoof gradually to expand to its healthy size and form. 
 
116 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 Seedy-Toe. — This is a condition of tlie wall usually 
 found at the toe, hut not uncommon at the quarters. It 
 is not common in hind-feet, but occurs sometimes. When 
 the shoe is removed, a separation is noticed between the 
 sole and the wall, and this sej^aration may extend up the 
 wall nearly to the coronet. As a rule, the space so 
 formed is a narrow one, but it may be wide enough to 
 admit three fingers of a man's hand. Probably all seedy 
 toes result from some injury or disease of the coronary 
 band, from which the wall grows, and the first appear- 
 ance is not a cavity, but a changed and softened horn, 
 which may be dry and crumbly, or moist and cheesy. 
 The diseased horn may be scraped out and the cavity 
 filled with tar and tow. The wall bounding the cavity 
 should be relieved of all pressure on the shoe, aiid if a 
 radical cure be desired, all the unattached wall should be 
 cut awa}^ This, however, should be done under veter- 
 inary guidance. 
 
 Turning in of the Wall. — By this expression, I 
 mean those cases of Aveak, low heels in which the border 
 of the wall turns inward. Such a form of horn offers no 
 suitable bearing for a shoe, and if submitted to pressure 
 by a shoe, gets worse. Too often this condition is treated 
 by paring away the sole within, which increases the 
 deformity. The sole should not be cut, but be left as 
 strong as possible. The curled-in border of the wall 
 should be cut down and all bearing taken off the shoe. 
 In one or two shoeings, the wall Avill resume its proper 
 form. When both heels are so affected, and the horse 
 has to remain at work, only one heel must be treated at a 
 time. The extreme point of the heel is never affected 
 and affords a point for bearing when the border of wall 
 in front of it is cut away, so as not to touch the shoe. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 Leather and Rubber Pads. 
 
 In the days when farriers were driven by theoretical 
 teacliers to pare out the soles and otlierwise rob the 
 foot of its natural covering of horn, artificial protection 
 had frequently to be given to the foot. A horse with a 
 thin sole could not travel over rough roads, on which 
 sharp, loose stones were plentiful, without great risk of 
 injury; consequently, in those times, plates of leather 
 were often used to protect the foot. When a horse went 
 "a little sliort," his owner not unnaturally concluded 
 that he had bruised his foot and that the protection of a 
 leather sole would be beneficial. In many cases, the 
 defective action was due to other cause than bruising, 
 but still the leather was adopted, and it soon became an 
 accex^ted theory that leather soles modified concussion 
 and protected the foot from jar. This is more than 
 doubtful, and I hold a very firm opinion that a plate of 
 leather between the shoe and the foot has no such effect, 
 whilst it interferes with the exactness of fit of the shoe. 
 " Leathers" are useful on weak feet to protect a thin or 
 defective sole from injury. When the under surface of 
 a foot has been bruised, cut through, or when it is dis- 
 eased, leather offers a useful protection, but when the 
 sole is firm and sound, it is quite unnecessary. 
 
 To apply leather properly, a square piece fully the 
 size of the shoe is taken. A portion is then cut out where 
 the clip has to fit and all protruding parts cut away level 
 with the border of the shoe. If applied without more 
 precautions, an open space would be left between leather 
 and sole, into which mud and grit would find their way, 
 and the leather would soon be cut through by resting on 
 the irregular surface of the frog. To prevent this mis- 
 chief, the under surface of the foot is made level before 
 the shoe is applied. The leveling is managed by spread- 
 ing a paste of tar and oatmeal over the sole, and filling 
 
 U7 
 
118 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 lip the space at the sides of the frog with tow. Then the 
 shoe with the leather is nailed on in the usual manner. 
 
 The belief in leather as an anti-concussive appliance 
 has led to the use of what are called "ring-leathers." 
 These are not jilates covering the whole under surface of 
 the foot, but narrow bands fixed between shoe and hoof. 
 They are absolutely useless; in fact, their only possible 
 effect is to spoil the fit of the shoe. Plates of india- 
 rubber have been tried between the shoe and the foot as 
 preventives of concussion. They invariably fail by 
 reason of their effect upon the shoe. At each step when 
 the weight of the horse comes on the foot, the elastic 
 rubber yields, the shoe is pressed closer to the foot, the 
 nails are loosened, and when the foot is raised the 
 rubber rebounds. The shoe soon becomes so loose that 
 it is cast or torn off. Nothing elastic should be placed 
 between shoe and foot. When an elastic or spring is 
 applied it must be between the shoe and the ground. 
 
 Various arrangements have been adopted to supply 
 the horse's foot with some provision against concussion. 
 Injured and diseased feet may no doubt be benefited by 
 some elastic appliance, which secures them from the jar 
 of contact on a hard road. They may be protected 
 against direct bruise. The healthy foot requires no such 
 protection, Nature has covered it with a thick layer of 
 horn and has provided against concussion by quite other 
 means — by the co-ordinate action of muscles, by the 
 oblique position of the pastern, and by the construction 
 of the back part of the foot. 
 
 Quite apart from any attempt to prevent concussion, 
 a valuable use has been found for india-rubber pads in 
 connection with horse-shoeing. The improvement in 
 modern road-surfaces has been accompanied by an 
 increased facility for slipping, and it has been found 
 that no material gives such security of foot-hold on. 
 smooth surfaces as india-rubber. 
 
 The earliest of these contrivances with which I am 
 acquainted was formed so as to leave the frog uncovered 
 whilst a bearing of rubber was given all round the inner 
 circumference of the shoe. This pad had a wide, flat 
 
LEATHER AND RUBBER PADS. 
 
 110 
 
 border, which fitted under the shoe, with which it was 
 nailed on to the foot. Its great objection was that it 
 could not be nicely fitted on many feet without first 
 cutting away the bars. 
 
 Then we had rubber pads which were not nailed on 
 with the shoe, but which fitted into the shoe and were 
 removed at will. The objection to these was that they 
 could only be used with a seated shoe and could not be 
 applied with a narrow shoe or one possessing a flat foot- 
 surface. 
 
 The next form to appear was a leather sole on which 
 an artificial frog was fixed. Great difficulty was at first 
 experienced in fixing this frog so that it remained firm. 
 The difficulty has not yet been surmounted by all makers, 
 but Mr. G. Urquhart, of London, makes a most reliable 
 article. These "frog-pads" certainly give a very good 
 foot-hold on all kinds of paved streets. 
 
 Fig. 90— Frog-pad. 
 
 A pad of very elegant appearance is " Sheather's 
 Pneumatic." It is not solid like the ordinary frog-pad, 
 but hollow, and is compressed at each step, but imme- 
 diately resumes its prominent form on being relieved of 
 pressure. 
 
 One of the simplest anti-slipping pads is " Balls and 
 Keep's wedge-x>ad." It possesses one advantage in not 
 covering up the whole under-surface of the foot. When 
 properly fitted, it is firmly retained and does its work, 
 but a careless farrier may so apply it that it shifts on the 
 foot. To fit it exactly, the wall of the back part of the 
 
120 
 
 THE ART OF HORSE SHOEING. 
 
 foot must be lowered more than that in front, so that 
 shoe, foot and pad may ail be closely adjusted. 
 
 Fig. 91.— Sheather's pad. 
 
 What is called the "bar-pad " is a leather plate on 
 which an india-rubber pad occupies the whole of the 
 back portion, and it is fixed to the foot with a short shoe. 
 
 Fig. 93.— Pad with shoe attached. 
 
 This pad is not only an anti-slipping agent, it is anti- 
 concussive, and for some diseases and some injuries of 
 the heels is a most valuable appliance. For long-stand- 
 ing "corns," for cases of chronic laminitis, and for horses 
 that markedly " go on their heels " the bar-pad is with- 
 out doubt the most efficient arrangement yet invented. 
 The best are made by Mr. Urquhart. 
 
 All these i^ads increase the cost of shoeing, but what 
 
LEATHER AND RUBBER PADS. 
 
 121 
 
 tliey save, by preventing falls and injuries to the horse 
 and fear and anxiety to the driver, far more than 
 balances the account in their favor. The cost, however, 
 is an item, and inventors have turned their attention to 
 the production of some other methods of applying rubber 
 in connection with the shoe for the prevention of slipping. 
 
 Fig. 94.— Bar-pad with shoe. 
 
 Fig. 95.— Without shoe. 
 
 Shoes have been manufactured into which cavities 
 of different forms and sizes have been made. Tliese are 
 filled by correspondingly shaped pieces of rubber. The 
 cavity must be so formed as to retain the rubber, and 
 this renders the manufacture very difficult, except by the 
 employment of malleable cast-iron shoes. This is a great 
 disadvantage. 
 
 Another plan is to make from rolled bar iron a 
 hollow shoe, section of which would be U-shaped, but 
 level to the foot. Into the groove so formed, a thick 
 cord of rubber is placed after the shoe is nailed on the 
 foot. This wears well and affords good foot-hold, but it 
 entails the serious objection that the nails are difficult to 
 drive and far from being so safe as in the ordinary shoe. 
 If rubber is ever to be available in a grooved shoe, it 
 should be designed so that the nails and nail-holes are 
 not interfered with. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 Shoeing Competitions, 
 
 The Agricultural Societies that have made horse- 
 shoeing competitions a feature of their annual shows 
 have distinctly done good to the art. In those districts 
 which have had the benefit of these competitions for 
 many years past, horse-shoeing is best done. In those 
 districts where no competitions have been held shoeing is 
 generally badly done. When the farrier takes a pride 
 in his work he is more careful with details. Provided 
 proper princij^les are adopted, no calling is more depend- 
 ent upon care in details for the best results than that of the 
 farrier. Competitions stimulate emulation amongst men. 
 Public appreciation, as displayed by the prominence 
 given to the art by the show authorities and by the 
 admiring crowd that generally assembles to see the men 
 at work, encourages a feeling of responsibility and grati- 
 fies the natural and honest pride of the workman. Very 
 few trades have suffered more from public neglect and 
 indifference than that of the farrier. 
 
 The success of a shoeing competition depends almost 
 entirely upon the secretary of a show, unless that officer 
 has amongst his stewards an energetic horseman who 
 has grasped the importance of good shoeing and who 
 possesses some organizing powers. In this connection, 
 I may perhaps offer a word of acknowledgment for the 
 work done by Mr. Clay, to whose energy and skill the 
 Hoyal Agricultural Society has for many years been 
 indebted for the success of its valuable annual shoeing 
 competition. 
 
 All the arrangements for the competition must be 
 completed before the work is commenced, and upon their 
 perfection depends the success of the whole thing. There 
 should, if possible, be two classes — one for heavy horses 
 and one for light horses. At large competitions, there 
 should also be a champion class. There are farriers who- 
 
 122 
 
SHOEING COMPETITIONS. 123 
 
 travel from show to show and generally appear in the 
 prize list. This handicaps the local men, and is not 
 encouraging to those who have not quite risen to front 
 rank. The object of the competition is to improve 
 the work of the district, and it is quite a question 
 whether the" rules should not exclude men who have 
 taken, say, two first prizes at any large competition. 
 The only argument in favor of letting the well known 
 smith who has taken many prizes enter a competition is 
 that his work may be seen, examined and imitated. By 
 confining prize winners to the champion class, this good 
 would be attained; at the same time, more encourage- 
 ment would be given to local men. 
 
 The necessities for a competition include anvils, 
 fires, tools, iron and horses. 
 
 For every five men there should be one anvil, with its 
 accompanying vice and forge. The anvil should be so 
 placed that the sun is not full on the face of the work- 
 man. The exact relative position of anvil, vice and forge 
 should be entrusted to a practical farrier, and the whole 
 placed the night before they are wanted. Coal, nails 
 and iron should also be provided. If competitors are 
 allowed to bring their own iron or nails, some poor men 
 may be placed at a disadvantage, and the habitual com- 
 petitor, versed in every detail, is given an advantage^ 
 Each man should bring all smaller tools he may want. 
 In broken weather a canvas roof should be supplied both- 
 for, horses and workmen. At all times, a temporary 
 wooden floor should be put down for the horses to stand 
 upon. This should be a little longer than the line of 
 anvils, so that each man has his horse ojDposite his anvil. 
 It should be at least twelve feet deep, so that there is 
 room enough behind and in front of the horses for men 
 to pass. On the side farthest from the anvils a firm rail 
 must be fixed, to which the horses' halters may be tied,, 
 and outside of this — at least six feet distant— should he 
 another line of post and rails to keep back spectators. 
 
 Horses have to be borrowed or hired, and one horse 
 is sufficient for two competitors. Care should be taken 
 not to have any horse with unusually bad feet. The 
 
124 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
 
 most suitable horses are those with over-grown hoofs. 
 "Under no circumstances should a vicious or very fidgety 
 horse be selected. 
 
 ' When time is not an object, the best test of a work- 
 man is to require him to make a fore and hind shoe and 
 put them on the horse. At a one-day show, or at a com- 
 petition when the entries are large, it is sufficient to- 
 require the making of a fore and hind shoe and the- 
 fitting and nailing on of the front one. A reasonable 
 time should be fixed, and undue haste shoidd be depre- 
 cated. 
 
 There should always be two judges, who should be 
 supplied with books in which each division of the opera- 
 tion of shoeing should be separately marked. There are 
 only three important divisions of the subject : (1) Pre- 
 paration of the foot; (2) making the shoes; and (3) fitting 
 and nailing on. 
 
 Sometimes these operations are marked separately 
 for fore and hind feet. I consider this quite unnecssary. 
 There is not sufficient difference either in principle or 
 detail to require each foot to be specially marked. The 
 judge, of course, notes everything in his mind, and it is 
 sufficient for him to estimate and mark the value of the 
 work under the three different operations. The great 
 fault I find with most competitions is that ' ' the prepara- 
 tion " of the foot for the shoe is not more strictly defined. 
 The competitors are permitted to mix up the ' ' prepara- 
 tions " and the "fitting." Some of them do nothing ta 
 the foot until they commence to fit the shoe. This is 
 wrong, and every foot should be properly prepared — the 
 Itearing-surface formed and the proportions of the hoof 
 attended to — before the fitting is attempted. A rule to 
 this effect should be added to the conditions in the sche- 
 dule of the competition. Each judge may perhaps be 
 permitted to fix his own standard of marking, but a uni- 
 form system would be useful for comparison. If the 
 maximum be indicated by too small a figure, difficulty 
 often arises in exactly determining the merits of men 
 who have come out equal in the totals, and there is too 
 often, in a large class, a number whose marks are about 
 
SHOEING COMPETITIONS. 
 
 125 
 
 equal. The three operations— preparing the foot, making 
 ■the shoe, fitting and nailing on — are about equal ia 
 value. A maximum of five points in each is too small a 
 number to make distinctive marking easy, but there is 
 .nothing gained by adopting a higher maximum than ten. 
 A marking sheet for the judges of a shoeing competition, 
 may be something in this form : 
 
 CLASS 
 
 No. of 
 Competitor. 
 
 Preparation 
 of loot. 
 
 Making 
 shoe. 
 
 Fitting and 
 nailing on. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 The stewards should see that each competitor has a 
 number, and that the same number is attached to the" 
 side of the horse on which he works. The steward also 
 should take the time at which each batch of competitors 
 commences work and see that none exceed it. 
 
 Excessive rasping of shoes should be prohibited, and 
 the men should see the sizes and kinds of nails provided, 
 so that they may make their "fuller" and nail-holes 
 accordingly. 
 
 Shoeing competitions are almost entirely confined to 
 country districts. It is a great pity that they are not 
 attempted in large towns. The only difficulty is th© 
 expense. It would well repay large horse-owners to 
 subscribe and support this method of improving the art. 
 
 In conclusion, I must say that the best of all ways to 
 improve the art is by giving practical instruction at th© 
 anvil. A few lessons from a competent, practical teacher- 
 are worth more than all books or lectures, as the work", 
 has then to be done, errors are j)ointed out and corrected, 
 ,and reasons given for each step as it is attempted. 
 
 The Berkshire County Council has adopted a travel- 
 
126 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. A 
 
 s 
 
 ling forge — tlie suggestion of Mr. Albert Wlieatley, V.S., .j 
 
 of Reading — which is accompanied by an instructor and i 
 
 passes from town to town and village to village. In this < 
 way is supplied the tuition which used to be obtained by 
 
 apprenticeship to a good workman. Other County Couu- • 
 cils should adopt this method. 
 
 i 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Action of the foot, 26. 
 
 Agricultural societies and shoeing, 
 132. 
 
 Arrangements of shoeing compe- 
 titions, 123. 
 
 Balls & Keep's " wedge-pad," 120. 
 
 Bar iron, 68. 
 
 Bar-pad, 120. 
 
 Bars of the foot, 7. 
 
 Bearing surface of hoof, 29, 41. 
 
 Bearing surface at heels, 57. 
 
 Bearing surface of shoe, 54, 56, 
 
 Berkshire shoeing- van, 135. 
 
 Bevelled iron bars, 68. 
 
 "Binds," 98. 
 
 Blood-vessels, 24. 
 
 Bones of foot, 21. 
 
 Bruises by shoe, 100. 
 
 "Brushing," 103. 
 
 "Burnt-sole," 102. 
 
 Calkins, 59. 
 
 Calkins, effect of, 60. 
 
 Calkins, position of, 61, 
 
 Cartilages of foot, 23. 
 
 Charlier shoe, 85. 
 
 •Charlier theory, 86. 
 
 " Clacking," 106. 
 
 Clips, 81. 
 
 " Close " fitting, 74. 
 
 Coarse nail-holes, 64. 
 
 Cold fitting, 82. 
 
 Concave shoe, the, 58. 
 
 Continental sandcrack-shoe, A, 
 
 115. 
 Contracted feet, 115. 
 Coronary band, 15. 
 -Coronary cushion, 24, 
 
 Corns, 100. 
 "Cover," 53. 
 " Cutting," 108. 
 
 Defective bearing-surface, 45, 
 Disproportionate hoof, 34. 
 Distance between nails, 64. 
 Double-grooved shoe, 58. 
 Drawing knife, 32. 
 " Dropped" sole, 110. 
 " Easing" the heels, 77. 
 Effect of Charlier shoeing, 8&. 
 Effect of calkins, 61. 
 Effect of frog pressure, 28. 
 Evils of roughing, 93. 
 Excessive rasping, 45. 
 Expansion of foot, 27. 
 
 " Fine " nail-holes, 65. 
 
 Fitting of shoes, 72. 
 
 Fitting of tips, 84. 
 
 Fitting the foot to the shoe, 30. 
 
 Flat bearing-surface of shoe, 53. 
 
 Foals and unshod feet, 48. 
 
 Foot-surface of shoes, 53. 
 
 "Forging," 106. 
 
 French sandcrack instrumentsii 
 
 113. 
 Frog, the, 10. 
 Frog-pads, 120. 
 Frog-pad, the, 23. 
 Frog-band, the, 11. 
 Frost-nails, 92. 
 Fullering, 57. 
 Functions of foot, 25. 
 
 Good bearing-surface, A, 33. 
 Grooved bars, 68. 
 Ground-surface of shoes, 57. 
 
128 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Growth of hoof, 17. 
 
 Height of calkins, 61. 
 Height of foot at heels, 34, 
 Hoof, the, 5. 
 Hoof, growth of, 17. 
 Hoof, wear of, 18. 
 Horny laminae, 7. 
 Horse-shoeing competitions, 133. 
 Hot fitting, 82. 
 Hunting shoe, 58. 
 
 Importance of horse-shoeing, 2. 
 
 Importance of roughing, 88. 
 
 Injury by clips, 99. 
 
 Injury by nails, 98'. 
 
 Injury by shoe, 100. 
 
 "Interfering," 105. 
 
 Iron and rubber combinations, 121. 
 
 Judging horse-shoeing, 125. 
 
 " Knocked-up " shoes, 104. 
 
 Laminae, the horny, 7. 
 Laminse, the sensitive, 14. 
 Lateral cartilages, the, 22. 
 Lateral proportions of foot, 89. 
 Leather soles, use of, 117. 
 Length of toe, 35. 
 Level bearing-surface, 43. 
 Long and short heels of shoe, H. 
 
 Machine-made shoes, 67. 
 Material for horse-shoes, 50 
 Modified Charlier shoe, 87. 
 
 Nails, 63. 
 Nail-holes, 63. 
 Nail-holes, portions of, 65 
 Nail-holes, pitch of, 66. 
 Nail-holes, number an(J position, 
 
 66. 
 Natural bearing-surface Of foot, 29. 
 Notches on shoes, 59. 
 
 Omnibus-horse shoes, 70. 
 
 One-sided hoof, 39. 
 Opening the heels, 46. 
 Outline fitting, 73, 
 Overgrown foot, 34. 
 Over-lowered heels, 38. 
 " Over-reaching," 105. 
 Over-reduction of hoof, 47. 
 
 Paring the sole, 42, 45. 
 
 Paring the frog, 42. 
 
 Pitch of nail-holes, 66. 
 
 Plantar cushion, 23. 
 
 Pneumatic pad, the, 119. 
 
 Position of calkins, 61. 
 
 Position of nails, 64. 
 
 Preparation of foot for shoeing, 30. 
 
 "Pricks," 99. 
 
 Properly prepared foot, 31. 
 
 Properties of hoof, 19. 
 
 Proportions of heel and toe, 35, 
 
 Rasps, 32. 
 
 Rasping the -wall, 45. 
 
 Relation of foot to leg, 35. 
 
 Removable "sharps," 95. 
 
 Results of neglect, 3. 
 
 Ridged shoes, 59. 
 
 "Ring-leathers," 118. 
 
 Rodway's shoe, 58. 
 
 Roughing, 90. 
 
 " Rough " nails, 91. 
 
 Rubber pads, 118. 
 
 Sandcrack, 111. 
 " Saucer" shoe, the, 79. 
 Screw frost sharps, 95. 
 Screwing taps, 96. 
 Seated shoes, 55, 78. 
 Section of foot, 20. 
 " Seedy -toe," 116. 
 Selection of shoes, 70. 
 Sensitive frog, 16. 
 Sensitive laminae, 14. 
 Sensitive sole, 15. 
 Sharping, 90. 
 Sharps without screw, 96. 
 Sheather's pad, 120. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 13S 
 
 Shoe for sandcrack, 113. 
 Shoe for forging, 107. 
 Shoe for cutting, 104. 
 Shoeless horses, 2. 
 Shoeing flat feet, 109. 
 Shoeing convex soles, 110. 
 Sole, the, 9. 
 "Speedy cut," 106. 
 Steel sharps, 94. 
 " Stumped-up " toe, 44, 
 Surface fitting, 75. 
 
 The hoof, 5. 
 The " quick," 13. 
 Thickness of shoes, 53. 
 'I'hree-quarter shoe, 101, 
 lips, 83. 
 Toeing knife, 33. 
 
 Toe-pieceg, 63. 
 Toe sharps, 94. 
 Treads, 103. 
 Turned-in wall, 116. 
 Twisted feet, 39. 
 
 Uneven bearing-surface, 44. 
 Uneven ground-surface, 40. 
 Urquhart's bar-pad, 131. 
 
 Various bearings of shoes, SO^ 
 
 Wall, the, 6. 
 Wear of hoof, 18. 
 Wedge-pad, the, 120. 
 Weight of shoes, 51. 
 Width of slices, 53. 
 
i 1 
 
Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine 
 Cummings Sciiooi of Veterinary Medicine at 
 Tufts University 
 200 V\/8SLboro Road 
 Nortli Grafton, MA 01536