clips. 89 



I believe that Mr. Fleming has since abandoned 

 the practice of hot-fitting, but I have quoted the 

 passage in order to show how curiously habit will 

 overpower reason, even in a well- trained mind. 



His saving clause of the unmutilated hoof is quite 

 sufficient to show that the practice is indefensible. 

 Where do we ever meet with an unmutilated hoof 

 except in the case of young horses who are to be 

 shod for the first time. Even in their cases the hoof 

 is not in its normal condition, for the animal has 

 passed all its life on the comparatively soft and 

 smooth surface of a paddock, and the hoof has not 

 been sufficiently hardened to endure its proper work. 



Having now scooped the sole to the thinness of 

 paper, cut away the frog, removed the pegs, lowered 

 and cut open the heels, and burned away the wall 

 with red-hot iron, so as to make it brittle, and all 

 for the benefit of the horse, the farrier has yet 

 another resource for weakening the hoof with his 

 ever-ready knife. 



In order to save the insertion of more nails than 

 necessary into the horn, which has become honey- 

 combed by nail holes, ' clips ' have been invented. 



These are simply flat pointed projections from 

 the shoe. They can be hammered over the hoof 

 while cold, and serve to hold the shoe to the hoof 



