38 PRACTICAL HORSESHOEING. 



to the shape of a well-formed hoof. We will presume the 

 animal before us — like nearly every unshod horse — has 

 hoofs of this description. 



The first step, usually, in the preparation of this part 

 for the shoe is to level and shorten the lower margin of 

 the wall, pare the sole and frog, and open up the heels. 

 These details may not be carried out so fully in the first 

 shoeing as subsequently, but we will note them as they are 

 commonly practised during the horse's lifetime. 



Levelling the Wall is an important operation, which 

 but few artisans rightly understand or care to do properly. 

 It has been stated that unequal pressure on one side of 

 the foot — one side of the wall being lower than the other 

 — is not only injurious to the whole limb by the undue 

 strain it imposes on the joints and ligaments, but that it 

 tends to deform the hoof and modify the growth of the 

 horn. 



It is, therefore, most essential that both sides of the 

 hoof be of equal depth, in addition to the whole lower 

 margin of the wall being level ; and to make them so, the 

 rasp should be applied to this border in an oblique man- 

 ner, across the ends of its fibres, to bring them to the 

 same length. 



A good idea of the necessary reduction to be effected 

 on either side will be derived from an inspection of the 

 limb from the knee or hock downward when placed firmly 

 and straight upon the ground. Any deviation of the hoof 

 to the inside or outside — most frequently it is the former 

 — can be readily detected by looking at the leg and hoof 

 in front. 



The ground surface of the foot should be directly trans- 

 verse to the direction of the pastern, and it is in maintain- 

 ing or restoring this relation that care and skill are re- 

 quired. If the pastern is perpendicular to the shank-bone, 

 and the two sides of the lower margin of the foot are di- 



