438 TIPS. THE EXPANDING SHOE. 



It will be plain ttat 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 order to afford as extended a bearing as 

 possible on the frog, and therefore less likely to be injui-ious. 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 expandmg and regaining its natural shape. 



THE EXPANDING SHOE. 



Our subject would not be complete if wc 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 only 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 ex- 

 panding 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 quarters, which would make it too 

 complicated and expensive and frail for general use. The introduction of 

 this shoe into general use, was for the greater portion of his life the main 

 object of that very scientific and acute professor of the veterinary art, Mr. 

 Bray Clark, and it is only within these few years, that finding the uncer- 

 tainty of its effects more than negatived its supposed advantages, that he 

 has given it up. 



While the shoe is to be attached to the foot by nails, w e must be content 

 with the concave-seated or unilateral one, taking care lo place the nail- 

 holes as fixr 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 woi*k 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 ii-on \\'ith the ground gives the animal 

 much pain, and aggravates the injury or disease. A strip of felt or leather, 

 corresponding in shape with the shoe, is therefore sometimes placedbetween 

 fhe seating of the shoe and the crust, which, from its elasticity, deadens or 

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

 and is evidently relieved. Tliis is a good eouti-Ivanee while the inflanima- 



