344 SCIENTIFIC HORSESHOEING. 



one required to be lengtliened by slioeing. I selected a piec« 

 of iron tliree-quurters of an incli wide by three-eighths thick 

 and turned it edgewise, then formed it into a shoe and naik^d 

 it on to tlie foot. The opposite foot was shod with a thin, 

 flat steel shoe. This gave tlie short leg tlic required three- 

 quarters of an iiu'li to make it the same length as the otlier 

 limb, and tlie horse moved olF clear in stroke in one shoeing 

 and the hitching disappeared. This horse was the noted 

 trotting horse called Galier, owned in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 

 1870. 



The other horse, similarl}^ afflicted, was a noted road horse 

 owned in Chicago. I found tliat tlie rear hind liinh, upon 

 close examination, was five-eighths of an inch shorter than 

 the opposite limb. The same remedy was aj)plied. The 

 short limb was lengthened to the length of the othoi- by 

 making and placing tliereon a shoe five-eighths of an inch 

 thicker than the other hind shoe. The horse moved off 

 square without the chronic hop that had before disfigured 

 his trotting action. 



But generally the hind legs are of the same length, and the 

 cause of hitching must be detected in the front action. Take 

 the case of tlie phenominal trotting mare, Lida Bassett, 

 whose performance at Chester Park, in 1883, startled the 

 turf community. At first she hitched in her slow work in the 

 left hind leg and then extended it to her bruslies of speed. 

 On one occasion, at Chester Park, I noticed that the mare 

 nodded every time the right front foot landed on the ground. 

 This led me to have the stride of the front and hind feet 

 measured with a tape line. The front print of the right 

 front foot was just four and one-half inches shorter than the 

 left foot print. I removed the right front vshoe, welded a 

 spur in center at toe, bent up at angle at front part of foot, 

 then placed a four ounce weight on spur on the right front 



