162 



SCIENTIFIC HORSESHOEING. 



and throwing the weight 

 of the horse upon the 

 wings of the coffin-bone 

 — the hoof becoming dry 

 and brittle — are some of 

 the causes which produce 

 a disposition in the hoof 

 to contract, which, oc- 

 curring at a time when it 

 is dry and inflexible, re- 

 sults in its lesion or split- 

 ting. In speedy horses, 

 where the heels are al- 

 lowed to grow too high, 

 the crust loosing its elastic 

 toughness, and becoming 

 hard and thickened, there 

 is liability, by the re- 

 peated jar of alighting on his heels in violent action, to burst 

 in the quarters — the break occurring where the stress falls heav- 

 iest, back of the heel, or at either or on both sides. 



In paring a foot of this kind, reduce the wall (especially at 

 the heels), as much as the safety of the foot will permit. The 

 next object is to remove the contractile disposition in the hoof, 

 by rasping it at the quarters until an appearance of serum, after 

 which open both sides of the crack with a drawing knife, so 

 that friction of the fractured parts may be avoided. Then rasp 

 or cut out the bottom of the crack so that no part of it may 

 bear upon the shoe. After the wall has been lowered, should 

 the frog project below the bottom of the foot, pare it flat. By 

 so doing, the frog will be aided in growing wider, and assist 

 the foot in expanding. When the cracks occur well back at the 

 heels, I sometimes find it necessary to protect the weak parts 

 from the violence of concussion by applying a bar shoe. Com- 



FlG. 59. A HOOP PROPERLY SHOD FOR THE 

 CURB OF A QUARTER CRACK, THE SHOE BEING 

 WELL BEVELED AT THE TOE, AND CUT OFF IN 

 THE BRANCH, FORWARD OF THE SEAT OF LAME- 

 NESS AT A. 



