FELT OR LEATHER SOLES. 427 



these holes, which will not only enlarge them and destroy the fixed attachment 

 of the shoe to the hoof, but often tear away portions of the crust. This shoe, in 

 order to answer the intended purpose, should consist of many joints, running 

 along the sides and quarters, which would make it too complicated and expen- 

 sive and frail for general use. 



While the shoe is to be attached to the foot by nails, we must be content with 

 the concave-seated or unilateral one, taking care to place the nail-holes as far 

 from the heels, and particularly from the inner heel, as the state of the foot and 

 the nature of the work will admit ; and where the country is not too heavy nor 

 the work too severe, omitting all but two on the inner side of the foot. 



FELT OR LEATHER SOLES. 



When the foot is bruised or inflamed the concussion or shock produced by the 

 hard contact of the elastic iron with the ground gives the animal much pain, and 

 aggravates the injury or disease. A strip of felt or leather is, therefore, sometimes 

 placed between the seating of the shoe and the crust, which, from its want of elas- 

 ticity, deadens or materially lessens the vibration or shock, and the horse treads 

 more freely and is evidently relieved. This is a good contrivance while the inflam- 

 mation or tenderness of the foot continues, but a very bad practice if constantly 

 adopted. The nails cannot be driven so surely or securely when this substance 

 is interposed between the shoe and the foot. The contraction and swelling of the 

 felt or leather from the effect of moisture or dryness will soon render the attach- 

 ment of the shoe less firm there will be too much play upon the nails the 

 nail-holes will enlarge, and the crust will be broken away. 



After wounds or extensive bruises of the sole, or where the sole is thin and 

 flat and tender, it is sometimes covered with a piece of leather, fitted to the sole, 

 and nailed on with the shoe. This may be allowed as a temporary defence of 

 the foot ; but there is the same objection to its permanent use from the insecu- 

 rity of fastening, and the strain on the crust, and the frequent chipping of it. 

 There are also these additional inconveniences, that if the hollow between the 

 sole and the leather is filled with stopping and tow, it is exceedingly difficult to 

 introduce them so evenly and accurately as not to produce partial or injurious 

 pressure. A few days' work will almost invariably so derange the padding, as 

 to cause unequal pressure. The long contact of the sole with stopping of almost 

 every kind will produce, not a healthy, elastic horn, but that of a scaly, spongy 

 nature and if the hollow is not thus filled, gravel and dirt will insinuate them- 

 selves, and eat into and injure the foot. 



The general habit of stopping the feet requires some consideration. It is a very 

 good or a very bad practice, according to circumstances. When the sole is flat 

 and thin it should be omitted, except on the evening before shoeing, and then the 

 application of a little moisture may render the paring of the foot safer and more 

 easy. If it were oftener used it would soften the foot, and not only increase 

 the tendency to descent, but the occasional occurrence of lameness from pebbles 

 or irregularities of the road. 



Professor Stewart gives a valuable account of the proper application of 

 stopping. " Farm horses seldom require any stopping. Their feet receive suffi- 

 cient moisture in the fields, or, if they do not get much, they do not need much. 

 Cart-horses used in the town should be stopped every Saturday night, until 

 Monday morning. Fast going horses should be stopped once a week, or oftener 

 during winter, and every second night in the hot weeks of summer. Groggy 

 horses, and all those with high heels, concave shoes, or hot and tender feet, or 

 an exuberance of horn, require stopping almost every night. When neglected, 



