444 



HORSESHOEING 



Too high 



Fig. 637. 



A preferable forra 

 -Calliins 



"Calkins" are the turned-down extremities of shoes, which would 

 probably be called heels by non - horsey folk. Projecting as they do 

 from a half to one inch, they afford the most eff"ectual stop or catch 

 where the surface is such that they can sink into it. For the hind shoes 

 of hunters they are quite indispensable, and they are most useful for 

 other classes of horse on soft roads. On some paved streets, where the 

 stones ai-e set with a space between them, calkins afford the best foot- 

 hold, but on hard, smooth surfaces, such as asphalt, they are quite u.seless. 

 To provide against wear, calkins are often made too high. Excessive 



height can be avoided by making the calkin 

 square, and so providing for wear with a lower 

 projection. The evils of calkins are that they 

 put the foot out of its normal position by 

 raising the heel. Thus the toe is subjected 

 to disproportionate wear, the frog is kept from 

 contact with the ground, and to some extent the muscles of the limb 

 are placed at a disadvantage for action. 



Toe -pieces. — In Scotland and the north of England heavy horses 

 are shod both fore and hind with calkins and toe - pieces. This form 

 of ground surface on a shoe has some advantages for horses that only 

 w'ork at a walking-pace and have heavy loads to move. The toe-piece 

 consists of a portion of a square bar of iron welded across the toe of a 

 shoe. This, with calkins, makes the shoe more level, and so preserves 

 the proper relative position of foot to limb. The toe-piece affords foot- 

 hold to the front of the shoe 

 just as calkins do to the back 

 of it, and the combination en- 

 al)les a lighter shoe to be used. 

 It is a good system for railway 

 shunt horses and for animals 

 dragging heavy wagons over paved streets, if the paving-stones have 

 spaces between them in which the toe-piece can find lodgment. 



Nails and Nail-holes. — As soon as the head of a nail is worn off", 

 the shoe becomes loose, therefore a flat- headed nail such as a carpenter 

 drives into wood is of no use to a farrier. The horse-shoe nail head must 

 be countersunk into the shoe so that it wears with the shoe and may 

 retain it in position until quite worn out. The nail has a w^edge-shaped 

 head. It has a flat shank, because the thickness of the wall into which 

 it is driven is limited. The hole in the shoe must be made to fit the 

 head of the nail, and as the size of nail most suitable for a hoof varies 

 considerably, it is necessary to make the nail-holes in a shoe very care- 



ex uiv^^ IJWOILIULI \JL i.yjKJV VKJ 



Fig. 638.— Nail-holes 



