432 CALKINS. 



eoinmon slioe is altogether prevented, and tlie weight of the horse being 

 thrown on a flat surface, contraction is not so Kkely to be produced. 



The smith sometimes objects to the use of this shoe on account of its not 

 being so easily formed as one composed of a bar of ii'on, either flat or a 

 little bevelled. It likewise occupies more time in the forging ; but these 

 objections would vanish when the owner of the horse declared that he 

 would have him shod elsewhere, or when he consented — as, in justice, he 

 should — to pay somewhat more for a shoe that required better workman- 

 ship and longer time in the construction. 



It is expedient not only that the foot and ground surface of the shoo 

 should be most accurately level, but that the crust should be exactly 

 smoothed and fitted to the shoe. Much skill and time are necessary to do 

 this perfectly with the drawing-knife. The smith has adopted a method 

 of more quickly and more accurately adaj^ting the shoe to the foot. He 

 pares the crust as level as he can, and then he brings the shoe to the heat 

 somewhat below a red-heat, and applies it to the foot, and detects any little 

 elevations by the deeper colour of the burnt horn. This practice has 

 been much inveighed against ; but it is the abuse, and not the use of the 

 thing, which is to be condemned. K the shoe is not too hot, nor held too 

 long on the foot, an accuracy of adjustment is thus obtained which the 

 knife would be long in producing, or would not produce at all. If, how- 

 ever, the shoe is made to burn its way to its seat, mth little or no pre- 

 vious preparation of the foot, the heat must be injuriou.s both to the sensi- 

 tive and insensitive parts of the foot. 



The heels of the shoe should be examined as to their proper width. 

 Whatever is the custom of shoeing the horses of dealers, and the too pre- 

 valent practice in the metropolis of giving the foot an open appearance, 

 although the posterior part of it is thereby exposed to injury, nothing is 

 more certain than that, in the horse destined for road- work, the heels, and 

 particularly the seat of corn, can scarcely be too well covered. Part of 

 the shoe projecting externally can be of no possible good, but will prove 

 an occasional soui'ce of mischief, and especially in a heavy country. A 

 shoe, the web of which projects inward as far as it can without touching 

 the frog, affords protection to the angle between the bars and the crust. 



Of the manner of attaching the shoe to the foot the o^vner can 

 scarcely be a competent judge ; he can only take care that the shoe 

 itself shall not be heavier than the work requires — that, for work a 

 Kttle hard the shoe shall still be light, with a bit of steel welded into 

 the toe — that the nails shall be as small, and as few, and as far from 

 the heels as may be consistent with the security of the shoe ; and that for 

 light work at least, the shoe shall not be driven on so closely and firmly 

 as is often done, nor the points of the nails be brought out so high up a.s 

 is generally practised. 



CALKINS. 



There are few cases in which the use of calkins (a turning up or eleva- 

 tion of the heel) can be admissible in the fore-feet, except in frosty weather, 

 when it may in some degree prevent unpleasant or dangerous slipping. 

 If, however, calkins are used, they should be placed on both sides. 

 If the outer heel only is raised with the calkin, as is too often the case, the 

 weight cannot be thrown evenly on the foot, and undue straining and in- 

 jury of some part of the foot or of the leg must be the necessary conse- 

 quence. Few things deserve more the attention of the horseman than 

 this most absurd and injurious of all the practices of the forge. One quarter 

 of an hour's walking, with one side of the shoe or boot raised considerably 

 above the otlier, will painfully convince ils of what the horse must suffer 



