narrowed down considerably in the last few 

 years, so that the shoer who has a half-dozen 

 swedges of the latest pattern on hand can make 

 most any shoe that is called for now. Often 

 times the toe of a foot has been broken off and 

 the only sound place to nail a shoe to is back 

 toward the heels. A toe-cap shoe is an ex- 

 cellent shoe to put on, as the cap will cover up 

 the break in the foot and hold the front part 

 of the shoe in place, because it will reach the 

 sound Avail up high that a nail could not be 

 made to reach without danger from "crowd- 

 ing," and a couple of nails on each side back 

 at the heels Avill do the rest. In the case of a 

 hind shoe, often two small nails at the outside 

 heel and one at the inside will be sufficient to 

 hold the shoe in place for two weeks. When a 

 horse lands on his toe and drives the shoe back, 

 use a cap-shoe if you would save his foot and 

 possibly his ankles from injury. If the shoe 

 is worn off quickly at the toe and is driven 

 back, as it surely will be, unless it is a bar 

 shoe, it will spread at the heels. And if the 

 horse is one of those close going fellows he is 

 liable to cut an ankle or a knee wnth the dis- 

 placed shoe before the driver discovers it. 

 Especially is this true of hind shoes. 



To make a toe-cap shoe, first cut the "pat- 

 tern" or piece of steel the right length and 

 draw out each end (see cut), leaving about two 

 and one-half inches in the middle out of which 

 the cap is formed, either by thinning this down 

 with a set hammer or by drawing through a 

 swedge. This thinning process should be done 

 w hile the pattern is straight and when the cap 



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