SHOEING. 



81 



"Tlii8 mode of shoeing in a country where, from the nature of the climate, the 

 horse's feet probably are very strong, did not strike me to be quite so injudicious as 

 the author above mentioned represents it. I determined, therefore, to try on this 

 particular horse a shoe in some respects similar to those described, that I might see 

 whether it would alter the shape of his foot ; since it is said to make ' the frog grow so 



Fig, 605. — F,orm of Shoe Adapted for Pro- 

 tection of the Foot and Aiding Mo- 

 bility — From the French. 



Fig. G06. 

 Ground View of Same. 



that the hoof is nearly a circle,' which was the very effect that in this case I wished 

 to produce. I therefore ordered my sraith to make a shoe at my own forge in the 

 form I ganerally use (which will be hereafter described), with the following excep- 

 tions : The web of it was to almost cover the sole, room being given to admit a 

 picker ; and as it proceeded to the heels, the web on each side was to be continued 

 as far as the cleft which separates the bars from the frog. He was to make the fore 

 part the 'thickest,' and to hammer it so thin at the heels that it would ' end in an 

 edge,' by which a person of ordinary strength could easily twist it. 



' i own I apprehended that this shoe, from 

 being so thin at the heels, would bend in dif- 

 ferent places, and thereby injure the foot. But 

 as it was constantly u<ider my own eye, I knew 

 that if that circumstance should happen, the in- 

 jury could not be material in the short time it 



Fig. 607.— Form of Shoe Adapted to Hind Foot 

 to Aid Mobility. Used by the French. 



Fig. 608. 

 Shoe Raised from the Heel. 



would be permitted to go unnoticed. But this did not prove to be the case. After 

 the horse had worn this shoe a day or two only, I found the action of the leg was 

 more free than it had ever been before ; for the bars with their covering touched 

 the ground ; the extremities of the web on each side, by being so veiy thin, having 



