ROUGHING. 93 



The more permanent and effective system of '' rough- 

 ing " consists in removing the shoes and turning down a 

 'charp chisel projection at the heels. In very bad weather, 

 a projection edge is also laid across the toe of the shoe. 



The diagrams show the method of "sharping" a 

 front and hind shoe at the heels only. The hind shoe, 

 having calkins, is not much altered. The smith simply 

 converts the square calkin into a sharp-edged one. The 

 fore shoe, having no calkins, is turned down at the heels 

 to afford enough iron to form the "sharp." But this 

 shortens the shoe, and if it be rej^eated two or three 

 times, as it often is, the bearing-surface is spoiled, and 

 the slightest carelessness in fitting the shoe causes a 



-Heels of fore and hind shoes, sharped . 



bruised heel, " Roughing" is generally done in a hurry. 

 A dozen horses reach the farrier's shop at one time and 

 all desire to return to work with as little delay as pos- 

 sible. The work is perforce hurried through, careful 

 fitting cannot be done, and bad-footed horses suffer 

 accordingly. The dotted lines in Fig. 67 show the 

 original length of shoe, and the shortening which results 

 from a second roughing. 



All horse-owners know how many lame horses result 

 from the repeated roughings necessitated by a week or 

 two of wintry weather. Some of this is inevitable from 

 the rush and hurry which cannot be prevented. Valuable 

 horses with weak feet should not be submitted to any 

 such risk. They should be shod with removable sharps. 

 The mere fact of removing a horse's shoes perhaps five 

 or six times in a month must injure the hoof. Add to 

 this the shortening of the shoe, the raising of the heel by 

 the roughing, and the irregular bearing due to hurried 



