32 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 



cular line of tlie leg sliould cut those lines at right 

 angles. (Fig. 17.) When looked at from the side, the- 

 height of the heels and the toe should be proportionate. 

 When looked at from behind, the frog should be seen 

 touching the ground. On lifting the foot, a level bearing, 

 surface wider than the wall should be presented, extend- 

 ing from heel to too all round the circumference of the- 

 hoof; within this level border, the sole should be concave, 

 strong and rough. 



In Fig. 17 is shown the foot on its ground surface- 

 and from the side. The parallel lines are quite arbit- 

 rary, but assist in explaining how the proportion of the 

 foot is to be attained. Both sides of the foot are of the 

 same height. The bearing surface just meets the middle 

 line. All the lines at coronet, heel and toe are at right 

 angles to the perpendicular line. The side view shows 

 the proportionate height of heel and toe and the slope of 

 the wall in front. Compared with Figs. 33 and 33, 

 deviations from proportion are seen. 



These conditions are not attainable with all feet, but 

 the prudent farrier does the best he can under the cir- 

 cumstances. It is easy to make tlie frog touch the 

 ground by over-lowering the heels, but this is only intro- 

 ducing one evil in attempting to avoid another. Some 

 feet have naturally a long toe with an excessive slope of 

 the front part of the wall. To hide this defect, a farrier 

 may "stump up" the toe and leave the heels too high, 

 but he does so at the expense of the horse's foot. Each 

 foot requires treating with full knowledge of the form 

 best adapted to its natural formation, and most cajDable 

 of carrying a shoe. 



The Instruments used to prepare a foot for shoeing 

 are a rasp, a drawing knife and a toeing knife. 



The rasp is the most indispensable. It should be- 

 sixteen inches long, proportionately broad, and one part 

 of it should be a file-surface. The shorter, narrow rasps 

 do not afford all the advantages a farrier should possess 

 to enable him to do the best work. To strike an even, 

 all-round level bearing surface on a hoof, a farrier- 



