CHAPTER XVII. 



ON SHOEING, ETC. 



Tjcce period when the shoe began to be nailed to the foot of the 

 horse is unceitain. WilHam the Norman introduced it into our 

 country. 



Far more than is generally imagined, do the comfort and 

 health of tne horse, and the safety of his rider, depend upon shoe- 



In taking off the old shoe, the clenches of the nails should al- 

 ways be carefully raised or filed off; and, where the foot is ten- 

 der, or the horse is to be examined for lameness, each nail should 

 be partly punched out. 



The edges of the crust are then to be rasped to detect whether 

 any stubs remain in the nail-holes, and to remove the crust into 

 which dirt and gravel have insinuated themselves. 



Next comes the important process of paring out, with regard 

 to which it is almost impossible to lay down any specific rules. 

 This, however, is undoubted, that far more injury has been done 

 by the neglect of paring, than by carrying it to too great an ex- 

 tent. The act of paring is a work of much more labor than the 

 proprietor of the horse often imagines. The smith, except he is 

 overlooked, will frequently give himself as little trouble about it 

 as he can ; and that portion of horn which, in the unshod foot, 

 would be worn away by contact with the ground, is suffered to 

 accumulate month after month, until the elasticity of the sole j'^ 

 destroyed, and it can no longer descend, and its other functions 

 are impeded, and foundation is laid for corn, and contraction, and 

 navicular disease, and inflammation. That portion of horn 

 should be left on the foot, which will defend the internal parts 

 from being bruised, and yet suffer the external sole to descend 

 How is this to be ascertained ? The strong pressure of the thumb 

 of the smith will be the best guide. The buttress, that most de- 

 structive of all instruments, being, except on very jmrticular oc- 

 casions, banished from every respectable forge, the smith sets to 

 work with his drawing-knife, and removes the growth of horn, 

 until the sole will yield, although in the slightest possible degree, 



