328 SCIENTIFIC HORSESHOEING. 



line with the upper and lower pasterns. (See page 52, 

 figure 5, this edition.) 



One of the most important points in the science of horse- 

 shoeing lies in dressing the foot for tlic reception of the shoes. 

 If the horse is wearing his shoes level from the toe to heel, 

 the weight is equally distributed to all parts of the feet and 

 legs at each foot-fall. Seventy-Hve percent of lameness in 

 feet and less can be traced and located in un])alanced feet. 

 A horse well shod is twice shod. And my theory has always 

 been that prevention is better than cure. First, find the 

 cause ; then, remove the cause and the effects will cease. A 

 close observer never finishes tlie learning of horseslioing, 

 and no one man knows it all. Tlie world moves in every de- 

 partment of mechanics and in all the professions ; science 

 now holds supreme sway, and the farrier must keep up with 

 the march of improvement. 



I wish also to call attention to some faulty action in the 

 gaits of speed horses which will cause them to hit their knees, 

 ankles and shins. The fault is in their hind action. A horse 

 belonging to Thomas Taylor, of Pittsburgh, was known to all 

 the horsemen in Pittsburgh as being the worst knee-hitter in 

 the State of Pennsylvania. The horse cross-fired with the 

 right hind foot and leg ; he crossed his right hind foot and 

 leg under his body and scalped his pasterns and shin on the 

 left front foot. As the foot was uplifted he hit his coronet 

 and shin so hard that he left his feet into a run ; in the act 

 of getting the horse to catch his gait he would hit and bruise 

 his knees. The horse was pronounced a chronic knee-hitter. 

 When I saw the horse I noticed that the two front feet stood 

 up plumb under the front legs and that the fault was behind 

 in the right hind foot and leg. I suggested to shoe the 

 cross-firing hind foot with the pattern of shoe shown on page 



