FITTING SHOES 447 



round, others nearly oval, whilst many are very irregular, but they are 

 never geometrical figures. Were there a definite form, shoes might be 

 cast in a mould and applied without special fitting. The more ignorant 

 of the hundreds of inventors of horse-shoes are quite unaware of this, and 

 hence the stupid but plausible claim that their shoe " may be fitted to 

 the foot by a groom or stableman". The fact is, every shoe must be 

 fitted to the foot upon which it is to be fixed, and in this is the great 

 art of the farrier's trade. 



Circumferential Fitting is the adaptation of the shoe to the length 

 and breadth of the hoof, so that the wall of the foot may rest firmly 

 upon the shoe throughout its whole bearing surface. In producing this 

 " fit" attention must be paid to the nail-holes, so that they are brought 

 into the safest and best position for the nails to be driven through into 

 the horn. The outer border of the shoe should correspond exactly with 

 the circumference of the wall all round, 

 except perhaps at the heels. In horses 

 doing fast work the shoe should be fitted 

 close, even at the heels, and especially on 



the inside of the foot. The outer side of Fig. 642. -shoe Fitted short at the Heel 



the foot may be always fitted a little 



" fuller" or wider than the inside. The heavier horses may have the 

 heels of a shoe fitted wider than the hoof, and this especially when 

 calkins are used, because a firmer base of support is given by a shoe 

 when the heels are wide than when they are narrow. A shoe should 

 always be fitted full to the foot, i.e. not within the edge of the wall. 

 When shoes are fitted close, and neatness of appearance valued as 

 highly as sound work, there is a tendency for men to make the foot 

 fit the shoe. This is done by roughly and carelessly approximating 

 the border of shoe to the border of foot, keeping the shoe a little 

 within the edge of the wall, and, after nailing it on, levelling the work 

 by rasping away any prominent horn. In some strong, well - grown 

 feet this may do no harm, but it is a bad habit, certain to do injury 

 when a weak foot is being operated on. The length of a shoe is important. 

 It should be the full lena;th of the bearina; surfece of the foot. When 

 longer it may injure the horse's elbow when he lies down, and on the 

 front foot may be struck by the hind shoe and pulled off. The fore 

 shoes of hunters are always fitted short to avoid this (fig. 642), but in 

 many cases they are unnecessarily short. A short shoe is objectionable 

 for many reasons — it loses some of the natural bearing of the foot, it 

 is likely to cause a corn by bruising the sole at the heel, and it carries 

 forward, out of its proper relative position to the limb, the base upon 



