446 HORSE-SHOEING 



hunters, bars can be had ready fullered and concaved. For hind shoes 

 of hunters a very good prepared bar is made, which, being rounded on 

 two edges, affords a shoe without trouble that guards against over-reaches. 

 Machine-made Shoes. — All sorts of shoes are now supplied ready 

 for nailing on, made entirely by machinery. For front feet these shoes 

 are all that is wanted, but for hind feet the best hand-made are still 

 unequalled. No doubt engineering skill will soon be able to supply a 

 hind shoe which will last a month on a hard-wearing horse and yet not 

 be heavy and cumbersome. There will be a large demand for such a 

 shoe when it appears. 



FITTING SHOES 



Care in Fitting. — Very few horse-owners appreciate the importance 

 of care and exactness in fitting shoes to horses' feet, and yet this part 

 of the operation of shoeing may render a perfectly-formed shoe an instru- 

 ment of torture, and cost the owner more than the price of a hundred 

 sets of shoes. 



Too much care in fitting the shoe to the foot cannot be taken, and 

 as care means time, the folly of valuing shoeing by its cheajjness will 

 be evident. Cheap work is done by unskilled men or by skilled men 

 in a hurry. Under either condition it cannot be careful and exact, there- 

 fore the horse suffers. One reason why bad shoeing is tolerated is that 

 its evils are not always immediately indicated, and then the results are 

 credited to other causes. Quite a third of the ill efi'ects to horses' legs 

 that are supposed to be due to hard work are really the result of injury 

 to the feet. The grosser injuries cause acute lameness and are detected, 

 but the finer injuries cause only tenderness and discomfort, which is 

 overlooked, and so continued for months. The effects are seen in bent 

 knees, shot fetlocks, loss of action, and a shuffling gait, which combined 

 shorten the profitable working lives of horses by years. And yet horse- 

 owners will invite this for the supposed economy of eight or ten shillings 

 a year on their shoeing bill ! 



Having brought the hoof to the best form and proportions, the farrier 

 selects a shoe suitable for it in size, weight, and shape. His next duty 

 is to alter it so that in every detail it shall be exactly adapted to the 

 foot upon which it is to be nailed — in other words, he " fits " it to the 

 foot. There are two distinct objects to be achieved in fitting. First, 

 to make the outer border of the shoe correspond to the circumference 

 of the wall. Second, to make its foot surface rest evenly and closely 

 on the bearing surface of the foot. Feet differ in shape; some are nearly 



