48 do:mestic aximals. 



hard and press upon tlie sole. Cow-dnng is the best stopping to pre- 

 serve the feet cool and elastic ; but before the stopping is applied, the 

 picker should be run round the whole of the foot, between the shoe and 

 the sole, in order to detect any stone that may have insinuated itself 

 there, or a wound on any other part of the sole. 



SlIliEING, etc. — Far more than is generally imagined, do the comfort 

 and health of the horse, and the safety of his rider, depend upon shoeing. 



In taking off the old shoe, the clenches of the nails should always be 

 carefully raised or filed off; and, where the foot is tender, or the horse 

 is to be examined for lameness, each nail should be partly punched out. 



The edges of the crust are then to be rasped to detect whether an}' 

 stubs remain in the nail-holes, and to remove the crust, into which dust 

 and gravel have insinuated themselves. 



Next comes the important process of paring out, with regard to which 

 it is almost impossible to lay down any specific rules. This, however, 

 is undoubted, that far more injury has been done by the neglect of 

 paring, than by carrying it to too great an extent. The act of paring is 

 a work of much more labor than the proprietor of the horse often 

 imagines. The smith, except he is overlooked, will frequently give him- 

 self as little trouble about it as he can ; and that portion of horn 

 ■which, in the unshod foot, would be worn away by contact with the 

 ground, is suff'ered to accumulate month after month, until the elasticity 

 of the sole is destroyed, and it can no longer descend, and its other 

 functions are impeded, and foundation is laid for corn, and contraction, 

 and navicular disease, and inflammation. That portion of horn should 

 be left on the foot which will defend the internal parts from being 

 bruised, and yet suffer the external sole to descend, llow is this to be 

 ascertained ? The strong pressure of the thumb of the smith will be 

 the best guide. The buttress, that most destructive of all instruments, 

 being, except on very particular occasions, banished from every respect- 

 able forge, the smith sets to work with his drawing knife, and removes 

 the growth of horn, until the sole will yield, although in the slightest 

 possible degree, to the strong pressure of his thumb. The proper thick- 

 ness of horn will then remain. 



The quantity of horn to be removed, in order to leave the proper 

 degree of thickness, will vary with different feet. From the strong foot 

 a great deal must be taken. From the concave foot the horn may be 

 removed until the sole will yield to a moderate pressure. From the fiat 

 foot little needs be pared; while the pumiced foot should be deprived 

 of nothing but the ragged parts. 



The crust should be reduced to a perfect level all round, but left a 

 little higher than the sole, or the sole will be bruised by its pressure on 

 the edge of the seating. 



The heels will require considerable attention. From the stress wliich 

 is thrown on the inner heel, and from the weakness of the quarter there, 

 the horn usually wears away considerably faster than it would on the 

 outer one, and if an equal portion of horn were pared from it, it would 

 be left lower than the outer heel. The smith should therefore accom- 

 modate his paring to the comparative wear of the heels, and be exceed- 

 ingly careful to leave them precisely level. 



