HOESE-SHOEING. 107 



road, and save the frog from coming witli full force 

 upon tliem. But open-heeled shoes leave the frog en- 

 tirely exposed to very large stones, and cause many a 

 bruise to the navicular joint, which lays the founda- 

 tion of future incurable lameness. 



Another advantage of bringing in the heels, and 

 fitting the shoe close, is the certainty that the horse 

 will not cast his shoe ; you leave nothing for stiff 

 ground to lay hold of, and, if you slightly bevel the 

 inside C[uarter afid heel of the shoe, from the foot 

 downward, as is sometimes done to prevent a horse 

 cutting, no ground in the world can pull it off ; for 

 the foot, expanding to the weight of the horse, en- 

 larges the hole made by the shoe, and leaves more 

 space for the shoe to come out of, than it made for it- 

 self to go in at, but if the shoe projects beyond the 

 hoof at any part, and more particularly at the heels, 

 the foot cannot fill the hole made by the shoe, and 

 stiff clay will cling round the projection, and pull the 

 shoe off. 



Having so far finished the shoe, place it on the 

 face of the anvil, with the toe hanging over the side, 

 and see that the foot surface of the quarters and heels 

 are quite level j then make it hot enough to scorch 

 the hoof all round, and form a bed for itself. With- 

 out this it would be next to impossible to insure 

 close fitting ; for after you have made the foot as 

 level as you can wuth the rasp, and the shoe as level 

 as you can on the anvil, the chances are very much 



