CHAPTER XVIII. 

 Calks and Grabs. 



I have known trainers and owners that 

 would shoe every horse in their stables with 

 calks and grabs and leave the shoes on a month 

 if they did not w^ear out sooner. In other 

 words, the horse would have grabs and calks 

 on about a week or ten days, the calks having 

 w^orn off in that time ; and the balance of the 

 month they would be working in smooth shoes. 

 The calks would be put on at every shoeing, 

 and I used to think that some of the fellows 

 w^ho paid the bills ordered it done, fearing they 

 would not get their money's worth otherwise. 

 And again, perhaps it was force of habit; some- 

 times a man will form a habit of shoeing all of 

 his horses alike. If a certain shoe or the 

 method of its application happens to benefit 

 only one horse in the outfit, the whole string 

 would have to be given a tryout with it. If a 

 pacer goes wide behind and runs down, tires a 

 little at the end of the mile,, shoe him w^ith a 

 low, sharp toe-calk straight across the toe of 

 the shoe and also a low heel-calk, the inside 

 one dull, the outside one sharp and brazed on 

 lengthwise of the short trail. The calks will 

 pull him together, give him a firm hold on the 

 track and that "trembly'' condition of his hind 

 legs will not be so noticeable after a hard heat. 

 All horses cannot go in calks, but most of them 

 can on a track that has a deep cushion or a 

 ''rotten" surface. 



I believe that many a big-gaited trotter has 

 lost his race on a deep, sandy track or a track 



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