284 



Horseslioeing. 



modating the foot to the shoe, instead of altering the shoe to the 

 foot; and it must be confessed, that unless a smith is encouraged 

 to take an interest in his work, by the owner of the horse paying 

 an occasional visit to the forge, and showing that he, too, is 

 interested, it is very tempting to him, when he finds the foot and 

 the shoe do not come well together, to adopt the more expeditious 

 and less troublesome course of substituting the 

 knife and rasp for the hammer and anvil. Every 

 lorge is expected to be supplied with store shoes 

 " turned in the rough," and if they were left 

 longer in proportion to their width, and straighter 

 at the quarters, with the heels wider apart than we 

 usually find them, the labour of fitting the foot 

 accurately would be greatly diminished, as we 

 shall see Avhen we come to consider that part of 

 our subject. The first thing, however, that de- 

 mands our attention is the mode of cutting off the 

 heels to the required length ; and for this purpose 

 a curved chisel, as shown in Fig. 1, is a more 

 convenient tool than a straight one, and saves the 

 smith much trouble in " filing up " the shoe before 

 he nails it to the foot : it removes the corners and 

 rounds the points of the heels at once, and ena- 

 bles him to fit the heels of the shoe to the heels 

 of the hoof with greater nicety than he can 

 possibly do when they are cut off square. 

 The best manner of proceeding is to remove a small corner from 

 the outer rim on each side, and a larger and longer portion from 



tlie inner rim, as shown by 

 tlie dotted lines A B C, 

 in Fig. 2. By this mode 

 of cutting off the heels the 

 outer rim of the shoe is 

 lengthened, and the inner 

 rim shortened, without 

 diminishing the width of 

 the web, as shown at 

 A C, in Fig. 3. After 

 the heels have been cut 

 off, as directed above,. 

 the nail-holes should be 

 opened ; and the best 

 mode of doing it is ta 

 make them pass straight 

 ^'S- 2. through the shoe, instead 



of inclining inwards in the direction of the centre of the hoof, as. 



