88 SCIENTIFIC HORSESHOEING. 



Form of the Shoe. — The shoe should have a perfectly 

 level, wall-bearing surface; but to mellow and soften any pres- 

 sure on the sole which has a certain amount of descent under 

 the exertions of progression, the plane of the shoe should be 

 concaved or beveled off inwardly, as shown in Fig. 27. 



The web of the shoe should be fashioned substantially, but 

 not unduly wide. Narrow-webbed shoes are eminently the best, 

 as they do not obstruct the growth of the sole, nor interfere 

 with its natural strength and flexibility. 



Setting the Shoe. — It is a common thing for writers to 

 admonish that "the shoe must be fitted to the foot, and not the 

 foot to the shoe," and it would seem an unnecessary caution 

 were it not a fact that the average farrier only partially prepares 

 the foot at first, leaving the remainder of the work to be done 

 after he has fitted the shoe — to his eye. Any inequalities or 

 deficiencies then in the shoe are either burned into the hoof or 

 it is rasped ofl' and made, somehow or other, to conform to the 

 size and shape of the shoe. I need hardly add that this practice 

 is wrong, and that the outcome of it is pernicious in the ex- 

 treme. 



Hot and Cold Fitting. — Burning a badly or even well-ad- 

 justed shoe, to a badly or well-prepared foot, is injurious, and is 

 to be deprecated under the most favorable circumstances, but 

 the fusing of a red-hot shoe to the foot surface, as is generally 

 practiced, can not be too severely condemned. Burning the 

 sole will, in time, overheat, blister, and destroy the laminated 

 and membraneous structures of the foot, causing lameness or 

 intense pain, and often suppuration and lesion of the living tis- 

 sues. The horn secreting tissues of the hoof under these cir- 

 cumstances are impaired or suspended, and when closely exam- 

 ined show an absence of the cohesive matter which unites the 

 healthy fibers, which thus disintegrate and become hard, dry 



