races and was then retired with his legs as 

 smooth and hard as rods of steel. He raced in 

 a shoe and pad that weighed nine ounces, and 

 in the winter he carried 20 ounces on each 

 front foot. 



We are all familiar with the great value of 

 bandages and cotton, blistering, strengthening 

 washes, etc., but in this particular case the 

 horse had been doctored too much. His feet 

 and legs had been sw^athed in swabs and ban- 

 dages for years, keeping them too soft. The 

 owner was looking for something to crack most 

 any time and was never disappointed until he 

 made the decided change above noted. Twenty 

 ounces on each front foot is quite heavy, but a 

 shoe and pad weighing from 14 to 16 ounces 

 is not too heavy with a hind shoe w^eighing 

 from eight to ten ounces. It always seemed 

 to me that a horse appeared to notice the 

 change from heavy to light shoes in the spring 

 by going snappy gaited. The thoroughbred 

 gets all of his preparatory work in heavy 

 plates. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Neglected Teeth Make Knee Hitters and Cross 



Firers. 



There is many a horse racing each year that 

 hits his knees or cross fires, or does some other 

 disagreeable thing that the horseshoer is called 

 on to remedy, that needs ''shoeing in his 

 mouth" more than he does on his feet. When 

 he begins to rap a knee, cross-fire or stride 

 short witli one front foot, something he has not 



63 



