STUD BOOK. 181 



entails on the animal a degree of injury and suffering scarceb 

 credible. The shoe is fixed to the foot, and often interferes 

 with and limits the beautiful functions of that organ, and 

 thus causes much unnecessary inflammation and mischief. 



The shoe of a healthy foot should offer a perfectly flat 

 surface to the ground. The bearing or weight of the horse 

 will then be diffused over the surface of the shoe, and there 

 will be no injurious accumulation of it on different points. 

 Too often, however, there is a convexity towards the inner 

 edge, which causes an inequality of bearing, which breaks 

 and destroys the crust and pinches the sensible parts. 

 Kound the outer edge of the shoe, and extended over two- 

 thirds of it on the lower surface, a groove is sunk, through 

 which pass the nails for the fastening of the shoe. At first 

 they somewhat project, but they are soon worn down to the 

 level of the shoe, which, in the healthy foot, should not vary- 

 in thickness from the heel to the toe. 



The width of .the shoe will depend on that of the foot 

 The general rule is, that it should protect the sole from in- 

 jury, and be as wide at the heel as the frog will permit. 



The upper surface of the shoe should be differently 

 formed; it should be flat along the upper end, the outer por- 

 tion supporting the crust, or, in other words, the weight of 

 the horse, and widest at the heel, so as afford expansion of 

 the bars and the heels. The inner portion of the shoe should 

 be beveled off, in order that, in the descent of the sole, that 

 part of the foot may not be bruised. The owner of the horse 

 should occasionally be present when the shoes are removed, 

 and he will be too often surprised to see how far the smith, 

 almost willfully, deviates from the right construction of this 

 apparently simple apparatus. The beveled shoe is a little 

 more troublesome to make and to apply than that which is 

 often used by the village smith; but it will be the owner's 

 fault if his directions are not implicitly obeyed. 



Even at the commencement of the operation of shoeing, 

 the eye of the master or the trustworthy groom will be 



Requisite. 



The shoe is often torn from the foot in a most violent and 

 cruel way. Scarcely half the clenches are raised, when the 

 smith seizes the shoe with his pincers, and forcibly wrenches 

 it off The shrinking of the horse will tell how much he 

 suffers, and the fragments of the crust will also afford suffi- 

 cient proofs of the mischief that has been done, especially 



