44 



THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 



say against tliis form of shoe and the necessary form of 

 foot surface for it, except that it is more difficult to 

 make than the ordinary level one. When adopted, the 

 curve of the foot should not be obtained by over-lower- 

 ing the toe and heels, but by leaving the quarters higher. 



Faults to be Avoided. 



Fig. 29 shows a hoof in which shortening of the toe 

 has been effected not by reducing the ground surface of 

 the wall, but by rasping away the wall in front of the 

 toe. This should not be done with any good foot, but it 

 may be adopted with feet having an unnaturally long 

 toe and no superfluous horn on the under surface. A 

 " stumped-up " toe is very ugly, and it weakens the hoof 

 in front. 



Fig. 29.— a " stumped-np " toe. 



Uneven Bearing Surfaces are easily produced by 

 a careless use of the rasp. One side of the wall may be 

 made lower than the other, one heel may be reduced 

 more than the rest of the foot, or one side of the toe may 

 be unevenly reduced. In Fig. 30, the foot presents an 

 uneven surface which not uncommonly results from 

 careless work. The parts over-reduced are those most 

 easily reached with a rasp. The near foot suffers at tlio 

 outside heel and inside toe. A left handed farrier 

 would injure the feet in just the opposite positions. 



Another fault results from holding the rasp untruly. 

 If we suppose the inside heel of the near foot to be under 



