118 THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 



them off or bending" them down as some men do. After 

 these nails are all driv^en I draw them out ag-ain, spread the 

 shoe all around one-eig-hth of an inch and drive the nails 

 back in the same holes. This g'entl}^ draws the hoof apart 

 and eases the pressure on the pedal bones. The nails being- 

 driven inward tend to spread the foot. Every time the 

 horse steps on a shoe made on m^^ plan, and shown in Fig*. 

 65 of the eng-raving-s annexed, the foot will be drawn apart, 

 but a shoe made and put on in the manner illustrated In 

 Fig-. 66 will draw the foot tog-ether. In following* my method 

 it is necessary to remove the shoe from the horse every ten 

 or fourteen da^^s and let him stand on a dampened dirt floor. 

 Under this treatment he will soon be cured. — By R. J. G. 



Contracted Feet, Corns, and Chest Founder. 



Relative to shoeing' chest-foundered horses, and in reg'ard 

 to contracted feet and corns, I will say that the three, al- 

 thoug'h called by different names, belong- to the same family, 

 and all are in the foot, chest founder not excepted. And I 

 still insist upon it as logical. Now, who will undertake to say 

 that a horse's breast has become shrunken from its natural 

 make up, in any respect, except from the loss of flesh, or b^^ 

 being' poor ; the bone or brisket is all there ; none of it has 

 been taken out ; just set the feet back under the horse, and 

 he will have just as full a breast as he ever had, excepting- 

 he may be poorer in flesh. I^ow, what is the fact about a 

 contracted foot or an}^ other foot ? As a rule, the frog- is 

 not only the cushion on which the horse stands, but is the 

 width of heel, also. Now, if the frog- is small, unnaturally 

 hard or diseased from any cause, usually you will find the 

 shell of heel and bars narrowing- in, and, it is said, true 

 enough, that the foot is contracted ; the angle of the heel 

 hooks into the frog, and needs separating ; the shell of the 



