20 THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 



been cut away, and with the inequalitj^ of surface on which 

 the foot must be placed in traveling* the g-reater amount of 

 surface covered by that portion of the foot outside of the 

 frog- than inside, the g-reater distance from the center out 

 acting" as a powerful lever, the ankles and knees are deflect- 

 ed inward so much as to make it impossible for the passing- 

 foot to get by without hitting. 



Here we have an interfering" horse, hitting every ankle 

 and both knees as a direct, unmistakable result of shoeing ; 

 and the worst of it is, from just the shoeing which is so 

 generally believed to be a preventive of interfering, and 

 which will be persisted in until the horse becomes a perfect 

 cripple unless '^booted all over," while the walls of such 

 feet, denuded of the enamel, and at every shoeing losing 

 more and more of their substance through the use of the 

 rasp, will become so split as to make it difficult to find a 

 sound place for a nail. 



It is not cutting away the little which may be cut from 

 the inside of the foot that insures its passing the ankle or 

 knee without hitting, but it is the position of the knee or 

 ankle relative to the line of motion of the foot in passing 

 which has the greatest influence. Who sa^^s, " Everybody 

 knows that " ? Who says, *' That's just w^hy we shoe in the 

 way you condemn"? Well, then, tell me wiiy this horse 

 began to interfere almost from the moment he left your 

 shop, and in driving ten miles had bloody ankles, laying 

 the foundation for a callous spot on each ankle, where no 

 hair will ever again grow, while he had not a mark of this 

 kind before you took him in hand ? 



Shoeing Horses. 



Said a driver of trotting horses to the writer, in speak- 

 ing of a valuable trotting mare which was beaten in 

 straight heats three weeks ago : " When I took her, directly 



