outside heel of the shoe, will be concentrated 

 on the part to be remedied, and the results thus 

 obtained will be highly pleasing". The horse 

 need not lose a day's work, unless you put on 

 a severe blister, which, in this semi-operation, 

 will hardly be necessary. In cutting the notches 

 across the main groove, I wish to caution 

 against cutting the coronary band, for even the 

 smallest slit in it might leave a weak spot or 

 groove in the new^ wall ; therefore, begin the 

 cross-scoring slightly below the band. 



CHAPTER X. 



Hitting the Elbows. 



There is one great consolation in owning or 

 driving a trotter that hits his elbows, and that 

 is, he will never hit his knees. Elbow-hitting 

 is not confined to trotters, however : pacers hit 

 their elbows occasionally, but they are not very 

 numerous. The trotter that hits his elbows 

 usually has quite a long", sloping pastern; his 

 foot sets well in front of him and the longer 

 his toe is and the more weight he carries the 

 higher he will carrv his foot when in motion. 

 It is generally believed that if a horse's toe is 

 allowed to grow out it will retard his action, 

 and he wnll not go so high. This theory works 

 all right while the horse is going very slow, but 

 when you ask him to step along you w^ill, in 

 most cases, discover that the long toe makes 

 the horse put more energy into his effort to 

 break over and when the foot leaves the ground 

 it leaves with a snap and the faster the horse 

 goes, or tries to go, the greater efifort to get 



55 



