ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. 85 



which are beaten down with a hammer till they are about 

 an inch long, and then the sides are made even, and the 

 foot and ground surfaces level on the anvil. 1 have found 

 horses travel pleasanter, and receive less damage to their 

 hocks, back sinews, and fetlock joints with these heels to 

 their hind shoes, than they have with any others that I 

 have tried. The toe of the hind shoe is exposed to great 

 wear, and should be made stout and thick, and rather 

 pointed, with a small clip in the middle to prevent the 

 shoe from being driven backward ; and the back edge of 

 the web should be rounded off to guard against " over- 

 reach." The toe should rest fairly on the ground to en- 

 able the horse to get a good purchase for throwing his 

 weight forward. It is a bad plan to make the toe broad, 

 and to place clips at the side of it; it is nearly certain to 

 cause the very evil it was intended to prevent, by making 

 the horse " forge," as it is called. Many persons think 

 that " forging" is caused by the front of the toe of the 

 hind shoe striking against the heel of the fore shoe, but 

 that is a mistake. The sound is produced in this way. 

 When the horse raises his fore foot from the ground and 

 does not instantly throw it forward, but dwells in the ac- 

 tion, the hind foot following quickly is forced into the 

 opening of the fore shoe before the fore foot gets out of 

 the way, and the corners ^f the broad toe, made still 

 broader by the clips at the sides, are struck against the 

 inner rim of the web of the fore shoe on each side just 

 behind the quarter, and cause the unpleasant clicking 

 sound. The way to avoid this disagreeable noise is to 

 make the hind shoe narrow at the toe, and rather pointed, 

 with a small clip in the centre, and to leave the hoof 

 projecting beyond the shoe across the toe. Then the 



