456 



HORSE-SHOEING 



shoes may be fitted close, but the wall of his foot should not be damaged. 

 As he gets into condition he will cease striking his fetlocks, and what- 

 ever curious form of shoe he happens to wear when he begins to go 

 strong and cleanly will get the credit of a cure, although it had nothing 

 to do with the change. 



The hind fetlocks suffer more from cutting than the fore. This is 

 due to the different form of shoe used quite as much as to the form 

 and action of the limb. The hind shoe has calkins which interfere with 

 the proper relative position of the foot to the limb, and so cause imper- 

 fection in the gait. Nothing so speedily stojjs cutting behind as removal 

 of calkins and the use of a level shoe. It is not the calkin that hits 



Fig. 651. — Shoes for Cutting 



the opposite fetlock. In very few cases is the heel of a shoe the offending 

 part. It is the inside toe which strikes, and this proves that the injury 

 results from defective action and not from prominence of the shoe. 



It has been found that a three-quarter shoe does good in cutting. It 

 does so, not because the heel was the offending part, but because the 

 movement of the foot is modified by the altered form of the shoe. The 

 practice of raising one side of the foot higher than the other for the 

 prevention of cutting is very widely adopted, and plausible theories are 

 framed as to its effects. Sometimes it is argued that the injured fetlock 

 is thrown farther outwards, and sometimes that the offending foot is made 

 to move farther away from the opposite leg. The practice is not always 

 successful, and the theory wants a true basis of facts. Not one horse in 

 a thousand "cuts" when in good condition, and nearly every horse does 

 when out of condition. Patience, good feeding, and regular work are 

 better treatment for cuttino- than all the usual alterations of foot and 

 shoe. 



