308 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



JUDGING THE WORK. 



In judging a contest of this character, there are inumerable small 

 details to be kept track of, and it keeps a judge stepping about to keep 

 his eye on the men at work, and as my associate judge, Mr. R. B. Ogilvie, 

 was not a horseshoer, but a breeder and show horse judge, could not 

 stand the heat and smoke (it was an exceedingly hot day in the tent), he 

 did not stay around much the first day and not at all the second, it left 

 the burden of the work upon my shoulders. 



Now, for instance, in pulling off the shoes, I had to keep my eye on 

 three men; did they cut the clinches or simply make a "bluff" at it? iWas 

 the shoe carefully removed, or was it torn off with one or two jerks, with- 

 out regard to bruising the sole or tearing the wall? Was the foot dressed 

 properly? Was the toe or heel too high? Was the foot level? Did it set 

 square upon the floor, when bare-footed? Was the shoe lang enough? 

 Were the heels fitted to the foot properly? The bearing surface of the 

 wall and the sole had to he taken into consideration. 



One contestant, after removing the shoe of a rather flat-footed animal, 

 whose wall had been dressed down far too much, in fact, so much that 

 the sole actually had the appearance of a typical drop sole, was not satis- 

 fled to let it go at that, but attempted to rasp some more off of the wall, 

 and then he attempted to pare out the already too thin sole; naturally, 

 this counted against his score; and then, again, when he applied the shoe, 

 he had the most of the pressure on the sole around the toe, instead of on 

 the wall, he having failed to concave out the sole bearing part of the shoe 

 sufficiently to prevent excessive sole pressure. 



After the shoeing was finished, the animals were jogged up and down 

 the road several times, note being taken of the way in which they traveled. 

 Did they move free and easy? Did they travel square? Did they set 

 their feet down flat and even? Naturally, the case refer rd to above did 

 not travel free and easy, but, on the other hand, it was on the very verge 

 of lameness, and could not be driven into a trot; of course, from an 

 educational standpoint, this incident carried considerable weight, for 

 the cause of the soreness was evidently plain enough to be seen by even 

 the most inexperiencd, especially after I had pointed it out as the cause, 

 and I believe that demonstrations of this character made in the presence 

 of the public, the horse-owning public, would go a great way toward 

 educating them to better comprehend the responsibility attached to the 

 entire procedure of shoeing the horse. 



It is hardly necessary to state that the shoes were removed from this 

 animal immediately after the work was passed upon, and then he was 

 re-shod, with special attention being paid to the weak sole, and after this 

 traveled as free and easy as of old. 



Some of the shoes were fitted too narrow, some too short; in some 

 cases it was necessary to rasp off the wall in order to make a neat job 

 of it. Some drove their nails very uneven, some nails going up two 

 inches, others hardly an .inch; some cut large grooves under the nails, 

 in order to make a neat job of it. This made the job look rather un- 

 sightly, and certainly does more or less damage to the wall. Others did 

 too much rasping on the wall in their attempt to finish up the job, es- 

 pecially above the nails. 



