548 THE HORSE. 
the joint, a pad must be adapted to its inside, and fastened round the 
cannon bone by two or three buckles, according to the height at which 
the injury takes place. 
SucH IS THE BEST MODE of guarding against the injury done by cutting, 
but we must also consider how it can be entirely prevented. In the first 
place it should be carefully ascertained by what part of the foot or shoe 
the blow is given. Most commonly it will be found, by chalking the 
inside of the foot, that a small patch is rubbed clear of chalk, about half 
an inch above the middle of the quarter, and corresponding with the hinder- 
most nail hole, especially when four inside nails are used. When this 
is the hitting point, if great care is taken to avoid driving im a nail there, 
the tendency to cut can never be increased as it often is by a raised clench, 
and at the same time the rasp may safely be used to reduce the thickness 
of the hoof at least the eighth of an inch, or often much more. ‘The crust 
is usually here about three-eighths of an inch thick, and very often it is 
go sound that it will bear to be rasped down till there is only one-eighth 
left, provided it has not to bear the pressure of a nail near vt, and that the 
reduction is not carried up too near to the coronet. In the hind foot the 
quarter is fully half an inch thick, and it therefore will bear reduction 
better even than the fore foot. Sometimes the blow is given by the shoe 
itself, which is fixed on so as to overlap the crust, and then the remedy is 
simple enough, for this ought never to oecur, and can easily be prevented 
by any smith. But supposing, in spite of these precautions, the cutting 
still continues after the horse is restored to his natural strength and flesh, 
can anything be done by shoeing? In most cases this question may be 
answered in the affirmative, by the use of what is called a feather-edged 
shoe, which will be described under the head of shoeing in Chap. XXXII. 
By its aid the heels are both raised, not the inner one only (which is 
entirely useless and even prejudicial, for then the ground surface of the 
shoe is not a true plane), but both heels, the inner one being narrow, and 
having no nail holes beyond the two near the toe, so that there is no 
danger of the web projecting; nor is there any nail hole required, with 
the fear of a clench rising, or of the crust being weakened so as to pre- 
vent its being thinned to a proper degree. By thus raising the heels (in 
the hind foot especially), the fetlock is less bent, and as in horses that 
cut there is almost always a tendency in their fetlock joints to bend in- 
wards as well as backwards, this diminution of the angle will not only 
straighten the leg in a forward direction, but will also increase the dis- 
tance between the joints, which is the object to be desired. In the fore 
foot the obliquity in this direction is not so frequent, and then the high 
neel will be of no use; indeed, it is only when the toes are much turned 
out that this plan of shoeing the fore foot is ever successful. When 
cutting occurs before, unless there is this turn out, it 1s better to put the 
shoes on in a perfectly level manner, and trust to the reduction of the 
thickness of the quarter, and the absence of the third nail. If, with 
these precautions, the horse, when in good condition, still strikes his fore 
legs, it will be better to put up with the constant use of a boot. Generally, 
however, if the inflammation is first subdued, and the foot is shod in a 
perfectly true and level manner, taking care to rasp away the particular 
part which strikes the other leg, it will be found that the cutting is 
avoided. 
SPEEDY CUTTING is more dangerous than ordinary cutting, because the 
pain given by the blow is generally more severe, and is often so great that 
the horse falls as if he were shot. On examining the leg of a confirmed 
