CHAPTER III. 



Preparation of the Foot. 



The cheap wisdom of the amateur is often expressedJ 

 in the remark " the shoe should be fitted to the foot, not 

 the foot to the shoe."' Like many other dogmatic state-- 

 ments, this is only the unqualified assertion of half a. 

 truth. Foot and shoe have to be fitted to each other. 

 There are very few horses whose feet do not require con- 

 siderable alteration before a shoe can be properly fitted 

 to them. As a rule, when a horse arrives at the forge,, 

 the feet are overgrown and quite out of proportion. In 

 a few cases — as when a pIioo lias been lost en a joumey — 

 the foot is worn or broken and irregularly deficient in 

 horn. In either instance, the farrier has to make alter- 

 ations in the hoof to obtain the best bearing surface 

 before he fits a new shoo. The claim often made for 

 some novel inventions in horse shoes, "that they may be 

 fitted and applied in the stable by a groom or stable mo.n," 

 is evidence of a sad misunderstanding of the art of horse- • 

 shoeing. If shod feet always remained of the same^ 

 shape, replacement of shoes would be a very easy matter, , 

 but they never do. The living foot is coiistan'dy chang- 

 ing, and therefore the man entrusted with fitting shoes. 

 to it must know what its proper form should be. Whexii 

 he finds it disproportionately overgrown, he must know 

 how much horn to remove — where to take away and 

 where to leave alone. He must not carry in his head a , 

 theoretical standard of a perfect foot, and attempt to. 

 reduce all feet to that shape. He must make allowance ■ 

 for varieties of feet, and for many little diiJerences of' 

 form that present themselves in practice. He has, in 

 fact, to prepare the foot for a shoe, and it is just as-- 

 important to do this properly as it is to prepare a shoe 

 for the foot. To fit a shoe to a foot which has not been 

 properly prepared, may be even more injurious to the- 

 torse than " to fit the foot to the shoe." 



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