98 stStem fok training cay alky horses. 



of doing tills Is to pare the bars down nearly eYen 

 with the sole, a«id then you can get at the dead horn 

 in the corners more easily. The part of the bar 

 which stands above the sole would have been worn 

 away or broken down, if the shoe had not kept the 

 hoof off the ground ; therefore you had better always 

 pare it down ; but on no account ever cut any thing 

 away from the sides of the bars, or, what is called, 

 " open out the heels ;" and be sure that you never 

 touch the frog with a knife. ISTow remember, that 

 there are three things which you must never do in 

 paring out a foot ; you must never cut the sides of 

 the bars, or open out the heels, or pare the frog ; and 

 for the following reasons : 



The bars are placed where they are, to keep the 

 heels from closing in upon the frog, and if you thin 

 them by cutting their sides, you weaken them, and 

 they can no longer do it, and the foot begins to con- 

 tract. 



Opening out the heels does exactly the same thing, 

 by weakening the very parts which nature placed 

 there to keep the heels apart ; it takes some time to 

 coi'-rract a horse's foot so as to lame him, and because 

 the contraction comes on by slow degrees, no one no- 

 tices it until the horse falls lame, and then every one 

 wonders what can have done it, but very few hit 

 upon the right cause. 



The frog is a thick, springy cushion, whose chief 

 use is to protect . a very important joint, called the 



