TIPS. — EXPANDING SHOE. — FELT. 341 



sure may be removed from the fissure, and thrown on either side of it, and in rhrushes, 

 when the frog is tender, or is become cankered, and requires to be frequently dressed, 

 and the dressing can by this means alone be retained. In these cases the bar-shoe is 

 an excellent contrivance, if worn only for one or two shoeings, or as long as the dis- 

 ease requires it to be worn, but it must be left off as soon as it can be dispensed with. 

 If it is used for the protection of a diseased foot, however it may be chambered and 

 laid off the frog, it will soon become flattened upon it ; or if the pressure of it is thrown 

 on the frog, in order to relieve the sand-crack or the corn, that frog must be very strong 

 and healthy which can long bear the great and continued pressure. More mischief 

 is often produced in the frog than previously existed in the part that was relieved. It 

 will be plain that in the use of the bar-shoe for corn or sand-crack, the crust and the 

 frog should be precisely on a level : the bar also should be the widest part of the shoe, 

 in ordftr to afford as extended bearing as possible on the frog, and therefore less likely 

 to be injurious. Bar-shoes are evidently not safe in frosty weather. They are never 

 safe when much speed is required from the horse, and they are apt to be wrenched 

 off in a heavy, clayey country. 



TIPS. 



Tips are short shoes, reaching only half round the foot, and worn while the horse 

 is at grass, in order to prevent the crust being torn by the occasional hardness of the 

 ground, or the pawing of the animal. The quarters at the same time being free, the 

 foot disposed to contract has a chance of expanding and regaining its natural shape 



THE EXPANDING SHOE. 



Our subject would not be complete if we did not describe the supposed expanding 

 shoe, although it is now almost entirely out of use. It is either seated or concave 

 like the common shoe, with a joint at the toe, by which the natural expansion of the 

 foot is said to be permitted, and the injurious consequences of shoeing prevented. 

 There is, however, this radical defect in the jointed shoe, that the nails occupy the 

 same situation as in the common shoe, and prevent, as they do, the gradual expansion 

 of the sides and quarters, and allow onl)' of a hinge-like motion at the toe. It is a 

 most imperfect accommodation of the expansion of the foot to the action of its internal 

 parts, and even this accommodation is afforded in the slightest possible degree, if it 

 is afforded at all. Either the nails fix the sides and quarters as in the common shoe, 

 and then the joint at the toe is useless; or, if that joint merely opens like a hinge, the 

 nail-holes near the toe can no longer correspond with those in the quarters, which are 

 unequally expanding at every point. There will be more stress on the crust at these 

 holes, which will not only enlarge them and destroy the fixed attachment of the shoe 

 to the hoof, but often tear away portions of the crust. This shoe, in order to answer 

 . the intended purpose, should consist of many joints, running along the sides and quar- 

 ters, which would make it too complicated and expensive and frail for general use. 



While the shoe is to be attached to the foot by nails, we must be content with the 

 concave-seated or unilateral one, taking care to place the nail-holes as far from the 

 heels, and particularly from the inner heel, as the state of the foot and the nature of 

 the work will admit; and where the country is not too heavy nor the work too severe, 

 omitting all but two on the inner side of the foot. 



FELT OR LEATHER SOLES. 



When the foot is bruised or inflamed, the concussion or shock produced by the hard 

 contact of the elastic iron with the ground gives the animal much pain, and aggra- 

 vates the injury or disease. A strip of felt or leather is, therefore, sometimes placed 

 between the seating of the shoe and the crust, which, from its w-ant of elasticity, 

 deadens or materially lessens the vibration or shock, and the horse treads more freely 

 and is evidently relieved. This is a good contrivance while the inflammation or ten- 

 derness of the foot continues, hut a very bad practice if constantly adopted. The 

 nails cannot be driven so surely or securely when this substance is interposed between 

 the shoe and the foot. The contraction and swelling of the felt or leather from the 

 29* 



