58 



SUOUING. 



Fig. 544. — Showing Bearing- 

 surface of Shoe Shown 

 in Fig. 544. 



dirt accumulate between the part and the shoe, inflammation and 



lameness will follow. The only remedy 



for this is to remove the pressure. But 



in time by this treatment the difficulty is 



only aggravated and made worse. Hence 



the usual assertion that " corns cannot 



be cured." 



Gifford, one of my old performing 



horses, had a very bad bruise (corn) on 



one of his inner heels, which, if not care- 

 fully attended to, caused serious lameness. 



After being troubled with it about seven 



years, it had grown to such proportions 



as to involve the entire angle at the heel, 



so that the horn was broken quite 



through, and the sensitive structure partly 



ulcerated. At the close of the season's 

 business, there was considerable inflamma- 

 tion and soreness in the entire foot. All 

 palliative measures having failed, it finally 

 occurred to me to try the experiment of re- 

 moving all pressure from the part, and 

 turning the horse out to grass. But there 

 was another serious difficulty, to which, 

 in part, some of the soreness might be at- 

 tributed. By the contraction or curling 

 under of the outer heel, it had become so 

 weak that it could scarcely be made to 

 support his weight in traveling, so I decided 

 to treat this at the same time. The divis- 

 ion between the bar and frog of this side 

 was well thinned out to make the quarter 

 flexible. Next a thin shoe of untempered 

 steel, a little more than an eighth of an 

 inch thick, was made to fit accurately to 

 the wall (as shown by Fig. 588), the end 

 being turned up for a clip, and fitted 

 nicely to its place. The part of the op- 

 posite heel of the shoe coming over the 



corn, was entirely cut away, leaving simply sufficient to cover the 



wall, which at this point was very thin. The shoe was now fastened 



on sufficiently to hold it firmly in place, but with very small nails. 



Fig. 545. — Form of Concave 



Shoe Used by the French for 



Expanding the Quarters. 



