472 CHAPTER 63. 



2nd. Necessary to maintain the shoe on the foot, especially in deep 

 ground. 



The directions given as regards the weight, width, and thickness of 

 shoes will be those applicable to ordinary riding horses. Heavy draught 

 and cart horses will need heavier shoes, whilst race horses will require 

 lighter. For very heavy horses, see Calkins, par. 986. 



In the succeeding chapter I shall advance some reasons in favour of a 

 change in the ordinary form of the toe of the fore-shoe. But this change, 

 though I believe it to have many advantages, both as regards the com- 

 fort of the horse in progression, and as regards the safety of the rider, is 

 not essential to the health of the foot or to the security of the shoe. 



960. Breadth of the Fore-Shoe. 



For ordinary riding horses, hunters and carriage horses, it is usual to 

 make the shoe about one inch wide. I believe that three quarters of an 

 inch is sufficient. The crust or wall of the foot, including the substance 

 intervening between the crust " proper " and the sensitive lamina?, is 

 about three quarters of an inch in width. This, as explained in the pre- 

 vious chapter, Par. 944, is the proper weight-bearing structure of the 

 foot. 



The shoe must be as wide as the weight-bearing structure. It must 

 rest not on a part, but on the whole of this structure. . To enable it to 

 do so the shoe must, contrary to the usual practice, be made flat towards 

 the foot (Plate 50, AA, Fig. 7) (see also Par. 964). 



The shoe must not be wider than the weight-bearing structure. Any 

 greater width than this must be useless, and moreover, will be the means 

 of allowing dirt and gravel to lodge between the shoe and the recessed 

 sole, and will also render the shoe liable to be sucked off in deep ground. 



The shoe should be of even width until it approaches the heels. To- 

 wards the heels, where the crust gradually comes to a point at its junc- 

 tion with the bars, the shoe must also come to a point, the inner edge of 

 its heels exactly following and resting on the bars (Plate 50, B, fig. 7). 



The narrowing of the web of the fore-shoe at the heels may seem un- 

 natural to those who are not accustomed to it. But if it is the shape, as it 

 undoubtedly is, which nature has chosen for the crust at its junction 

 .with the bars, can it be either unnatural or unsuitable? On the other 

 hand, the ordinary square or rounded heels are objectionable, because 

 that part, which overlaps either the crust or the bars, rests on nothing, 

 and is therefore useless ; and moreover affords a handle, as it were, by 

 which to wrench off the shoe in deep ground. 



961. How thick should the Shoe le ? 



The growth of the foot renders it necessary that the shoe should be 

 refitted at the end of a month. It is obviously undesirable to burden a 

 horse with a greater weight of iron on his feet than is absolutely neces- 

 sary. Weight tells much more (on the well-known principle of the steel- 

 yard) at the end of a long lever, such as the leg practically is, than it 



