HORSE-SHOEING. 791 



caused to be put on him in order to keep his frog from the ground, and let it come in con 

 tact with the ground at every step. For a few days, or even for a few weeks, your horse 

 may favor himself somewhat; but Nature will soon accommodate herself to the new liberty 

 granted her; viz., the liberty of helping herself. She will soon build up a frog, such as you 

 never saw in your life, a large, overlapping pad of gutta-percha-like substance, wide and 

 thick, that feels no more the concussion, when brought in contact with the stone pavement, 

 than the buffer under a railroad car feels the jolts as the train is being whirled along.&quot; 



Mr. Russell, previously quoted, says: &quot;A horse condemned to wear heavy shoes to 

 which heel and toe calkins are affixed, begins to fail from that moment. At the age when 

 he should be in the fullest enjoyment of his strength, he is called old. And few of our 

 horses live out half their days, the great cause of their decline being from disease of the 

 feet; all of which are caused by ignorant shoeing. In the management of colts on a farm, 

 they should not be shod until they come to rapid and long-continued labor on hard roads; 

 and then the lightest possible application of iron should be made. The safest way is to let 

 the hind-feet be bare, and to shoe the fore-feet with tips or crescents of iron that only cover 

 the toe. It must be borne in mind that the frog is the natural level of the horse s foot, and 

 the hoof must be trimmed, keeping that ever in view.&quot; 



Mr. E. P. Bowditch, of Massachusetts, gives his method of shoeing, as follows: &quot;My 

 way of shoeing is to get a level bearing on the horse s foot, and keep the frog on the ground; 

 never have any heel or toe calk, except when it is absolutely necessary in winter. The last 

 winter, I rode my saddle mare (and of course my neck is worth more to me than anything 

 else I own) on glare ice, with a small bit of iron, about four inches long, curled around her 

 toe, and with a very small toe-calk. I recollect galloping out on the ice, where the men were 

 at work cutting it, and I had no fear of her slipping, although the horse that was marking 

 the ice, that had calks on two inches high, did slip.&quot; 



Mr. Bowditch further states that he established a little forge on his own farm for his 

 own protection, and because he could not get a blacksmith to do as he wanted him to do. 

 They did not believe in light, three-quarter round shoes, and Mr. B. did; and where horses 

 have had their feet abused for many years he would use nothing but &quot;tips,&quot; leaving the heels 

 entirely bare. In reference to preparing the foot for the shoe, he says: 



&quot; One great thing is to take off as little as possible. You merely want to cut a little bit 

 off of the edge where your shoe is going; so that, when you have got your iron on. the frog 

 will be sure to come down, and take the jar on the foot. No matter if there is a large flake 

 which stands off; leave it there, for it may save the horse from getting hurt when going 

 down hill. There may be a piece of iron in the road (a nut, as happened in one case to myself), 

 and, if the horse steps on that, it may lame him. That flake is dead: it is worn off on the 

 road, and sometimes drops off in the road or in the stable.&quot; 



He never touches the &quot; frog &quot; in any way, no matter how ragged ; and is also very care 

 ful not to touch the &quot; bars &quot; unless they strike before the shoe, when he would shave off a 

 little. In reference to a case where the frog had shrunken up into the foot, and the benefits 

 of a frog -bearing in such a case, he says: 



&quot; It will benefit the horse if that method of shoeing is kept up; I know that by expe 

 rience. I very often have cripples come to my forge; and, when they get to going well, 

 they go back to their own blacksmith; their owners do not think it worth while to bring 

 them to me. When the little mare called the corpse, that I drive, came to me, her heel 

 was about an inch and three-quarters wide, and her frog was the size of my little finger. 

 Now she has a frog that fills up almost the whole of her foot. . . . 



I have been interested in shoeing horses for several years, and I never have had any 

 trouble with my own horses feet from the effects of shoeing. Nine hundred and ninety- 

 nine thousandths of all the trouble in horses feet come from shoeing; in fact, practically all. 



