THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 25 



ag-ain to-morrow." A pair of heavy plain shoes were put 

 on which fitted " to a shaving." Old Ben started out with- 

 out a semblance of lameness. I used him for a year and his 

 feet g-rew out sound. He could pull two men to a top car- 

 riage in two-fifty, and his walking gait was five miles per 

 hour. What a roadster he was ! How near he came to being 

 ruined \—Bij S. W. G. 



Practical Horseshoeing. 



My experience in horseshoeing, which extends over quite 

 a number of ^^ears, teaches me that there can be no arbi- 

 trar3^ rules laid down by which we must work in shoeing 

 horses. 



There are as many different shapes of feet in horses as 

 there are the human family, and as many different gaits, 

 all of which require a different shoe and a different style of 

 shoeing. 



First, there is the draught horse, which usually has a large 

 round hoof, and needs a strong, heavy shoe well chamfered 

 out on the inside next to the sole. His foot in a state of 

 health, in our climate, is nearly always very hard, so I take 

 great pains in paring the sole. I do not cut out all the horn, 

 as some do; I take out the dead sole, but do not pare so thin 

 that I can spring it with my thumb nail, as I think that is 

 too thin to prevent injury to the sole b}- stubs or stones, and 

 will bring ice and snow in too close contact with the sensi- 

 tive sole. 



I make a shoe the shape of the foot and as large as I can 

 nail on, bringing it around under the heel just sufficient to 

 get a good bearing on the crust of the hoof, but not close 

 enough to injure the frog. As much injury can be done by 

 shoeing too wide as by shoeing too close at the heels. 



I let the shoe extend back of the heels from three-eighths 

 to one-half inch, and where they are calked I slant the calks 



