SHOEING. 



53 



be easy to grow the foot down by keeping the horse in a stall or 

 small yard where the ground is soft, but when put to work it -would 

 be liable to split down again as before. Consequently it has been 

 one of the most vexatious and annoying of difficulties, because 

 to do this it was necessary to keep the horse idle from three to six 



months; a n d 



then, when put to 



work, if by chance 



he were driven 



sharply over hard 



or frozen roads, 



the quarter was 



liable to burst, 



which would again 



make the loss of 



use necessary. Or F^«- 532.-ShoelVladein Sec- 



., , tions and Riveted together 



It became neces- . _ . « , .. 



to Prevent Contraction. 



sary to resort to 



the palliative measures referred to, and 

 thus in time the value of an otherwise 

 good horse would be destroyed. 



We see, in the first place, that the whole trouble arises from the 

 hoof becoming contracted or too small for the internal parts. This 

 will be most noticeable at the inner quarter by the wall becoming 

 straight or drawn in sharply a little below the hair, the part at which 

 the split invariably occurs. This is proved by the fact that the 



Fig. 531. 



Figs. 533, 534, 535. — Different Forms of Shoes for Cure of Contraction. 



quarter is most liable to burst or split when the hoof is dry and 

 hard, or when concussion is increased by driving on hard roads. 

 This tendency to split is also increased by the inferior quality of 

 horn grown ; because the contraction of the parts, or pressing of the 

 wall in against the soft parts, so obstructs the circulation that there 



