76 SHOEING. 



shoe to the foot, not the foot to the shoe, according to 

 the general practice of those gentry. 



In London and all large towns, the best thing a gen- 

 tleman can do is to contract with a veterinary surgeon 

 for the shoeing as well as the doctoring of his horses. 



The night previous to a horse being shod or removed, 

 the groom should stop his feet, to soften them, and en- 

 able the farrier to use his drawing-knife properly, and 

 without injury to that instrument. 



In shoeing, any undue accumulation of sole may be 

 pared away; judgment must, however, be used in this 

 particular, as the feet of some animals grow more sole 

 than others, and superfluous increase tends to contrac- 

 tion, whereas care must be taken not to weaken the sole 

 of ordinary growth. I am aware that great difference 

 of opinion exists on this subject, but I speak from prac- 

 tical experience of the results of opposite modes of treat- 

 ment in this particular. 



If no shoes were used, the wear and tear of work 

 would provide for the disposal of this accumulation, 

 which, as nature is interfered with by the use of shoes, 

 must be artificially removed. 



If the frog be jagged it may be pared even, but the 

 sound parts should not be cut away, and on no account 

 should the smith's drawing-knife be allowed to divide 

 the bars or returns of the foot — an operation technically 

 called by the trade "opening the heels," to which falla- 

 cious practice farriers are pertinaciously addicted, be- 

 cause, in some one case of dreadfully contracted feet, 

 they may have seen or heard of temporary relief being 

 given by this process, with the natural result, which 

 they ignore, of the remedy proving itself in time worse 

 than the disease. 



