418 ON SHOEING. 



shoe, and in the careless manufacture and setting on of the bad one, irreparable 

 injury has occasionally been done to the horse. 



We will first attend to the preparation of the foot for the shoe, for more than 

 is generally imagined, of its comfort to the horse and its safety to the rider, 

 depends on this. If the master would occasionally accompany the horse to the 

 forge, more expense to himself and punishment to the horse would be spared 

 than, perhaps, he would think possible, provided he will take the pains to 

 understand the matter himself, otherwise he had better not interfere. 



The old shoe must be first taken off. We have something to observe even 

 here. The shoe was retained on the foot by the ends of the nails being twisted 

 off, turned down, and clenched. These clenches should be first raised, which 

 the smith seldom takes the trouble thoroughly to do ; but after looking care- 

 lessly round the crust and loosening one or two of the clenches, he takes hold first 

 of one heel of the shoe, and then of the other, and by a violent wrench separates 

 them from the foot : then, by means of a third wrench, applied to the middle of the 

 shoe, he tears it off. By these means he must enlarge every nail-hole, and weaken 

 the future and steady hold of the shoe, and sometimes tear off portions of the crust, 

 and otherwise injure the foot. The horse generally shows by his flinching that 

 he suffers from the violence with which this preliminary operation too often is 

 performed. The clenches should always be raised or filed off; and, where the 

 foot is tender, or the horse is to be examined for lameness, each nail should be 

 partly punched out. According to the common system of procedure, many a 

 stub is left in the crust, the source of future annoyance. 



The shoe having been removed, the smith proceeds to rasp the edges of the 

 crust. Let not the stander-by object to the apparent violence which he uses, 

 or fear that the foot will suffer. It is the only means that he has to detect 

 whether any stubs remain in the nail-holes; and it is the most convenient 

 method of removing that portion of the crust into which dirt and gravel have 

 insinuated themselves. 



Next comes the important process of paring out, with regard to which it is 

 almost impossible to lay down any specific rules. This, however, is undoubted, 

 that far more injury has been done by the neglect of paring, than by carrying it 

 to too great an extent. The act of paring is a work of much more labour than 

 the proprietor of the horse often imagines. The smith, except he is overlooked, 

 will frequently give himself as little trouble about it as he can ; and that portion 

 of horn which, in the unshod foot, would be worn away by contact with the 

 ground is suffered to accumulate month after month, until the elasticity of the 

 sole is destroyed, and it can no longer descend, and its other functions are 

 impeded, and foundation is laid for corn, and contraction, and navicular disease, 

 and inflammation. That portion of horn should be left on the foot, which will 

 defend the internal parts from being bruised, and yet suffer the external sole to 

 descend. How is this to be ascertained ? The strong pressure of the thumb of 

 the smith will be the best guide. The buttress, that most destructive of all 

 instruments, being, except on very particular occasions, banished from every 

 respectable forge, the smith sets to work with his drawing-knife, and removes 

 the growth of horn, until the sole will yield, although in the slightest possible 

 degree, to the strong pressure of his thumb. The proper thickness of horn will 

 then remain. 



If the foot has been previously neglected, and the horn is become very hard, 

 the owner must not object if the smith resorts to some other means to soften it 

 a little, and takes one of his flat irons, and having heated it, draws it over 

 the sole, and keeps it, a little while, in contact with the foot. When the sole 

 is really thick, this rude and apparently barbarous method can do no harm, but 

 it should never be permitted with the sole that is regularly pared out. 



