i>RlKCIPLES OP SHOEING. 465 



is applied, in a way which I will endeavour to describe, but which can be 

 much more easily shown practically. The foot being held up, the rasp 

 must be applied from below to the under edge of the crust, and must be 

 drawn round it so as to produce a blunt edge. If properly done no mark 

 of the rasp will be visible above the rounding off (A A A, fig. 5, Plate 49). 



Again, this rounding off must be done before the shoe is applied. It 

 cannot be done afterwards. Try and do it after the shoe is nailed on, 

 and then take off the shoe and you will find a sharp edge. 



Memo. If a sharp edge be left the crust will be liable to split and 

 chip, which is a great evil. All splitting and chipping may be obviated 

 in ordinary feet by rounding off the crust in the way described before the 

 shoe is applied, provided always that the exterior of the crust has not 

 been previously injured by rasping. 



Farriers almost always I think I might say always rasp the lower 

 edge of the crust after the shoe has been nailed on, and thereby produce 

 a sharp edge. They use the rasp at this time in order to produce the 

 appearance of a good neat fit of the shoe to the foot. 



948. The Bars. 



The bars (B, fig. 6) are a reduplication inwards of the crust at the 

 heels. In addition to other uses the bars are the stays provided by 

 nature to the back part of the foot against contraction. The continuity 

 of the circle of the crust is broken at the heels by the intervention of the 

 frog. Here some stay or buttress is needed to prevent a wiring in of the 

 crust at the heels. 



The bars demand no special treatment, except to be let alone. If let 

 alone, they will perform their duties efficiently and well. It is, however, 

 the common practice of farriers to cut them away, because their absence 

 gives a wider and more open appearance to the foot at the heels. But 

 the result, the inevitable result, except perhaps in very strong feet, is 

 contraction at the heels, and in many cases corns. 



It is also the common practice to pare out the sole from the angle 

 between the crust and the bars. This angle is the seat of corn. It is 

 pared out under the impression that this operation will relieve the part 

 from that pressure which is the cause of corn. This idea, as preventive 

 of corn, is a fallacy. Nature has filled up the angle with sole, and nature 

 is never wrong. The portion of the sole between the crust and the bars 

 acts beneficially in sustaining the bars in their proper position. When 

 it is removed, the bars from want of its due and natural support are apt 

 to wire in towards the crust. This wiring in produces undue pressure on 

 the seat of corn, and may ultimately induce corn. Corns, however, are 

 also due to other causes, of which hereafter. 



Bars, which have been cut away for a number of years, almost cease 

 to exist. Pressure and weight are essential to their development, and in 

 common with other parts, which are deprived of that duty for which 

 nature intended them, they will dwindle away, and nothing but the germ 

 will remain. In most cases, however, they may be again developed and 



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