INJURIES frOxM: shoeing. 



105 



methods, applied to quite similar cases, are as antagonis- 

 tic as the poles. A light shoe without calkins has at any 

 rate negative properties— it will not assist the horse to 

 injure himself. For all the other forms and shapes I 

 have a profound contempt, but as people will have 

 changes, and as the most marked departure from the 

 ordinary seems to give the greatest satisfaction, it is 

 perhaps " good business " to supply what is appreciated. 

 The two great cures for "cutting" are — regular 

 work and good, old beans. When a man drives a horse 

 forty miles in a day at a fast pace he, of course, blames 

 the farrier for all damage to the fetlocks. He is merely 

 illogical. 



Over-Reaching. 



This is an injury to the heel — generally the inner — 

 of a front foot. The heel is struck by the inner border 

 of the toe of the hind shoe. Over-reach occurs at a 

 gallop in this country, but is seen in America as the 



Fig. 76. — Toe of hind shoe showing the edge which cuts the heel of fore-foot. 



result of a mis-step in the fast trotters. An over-reach 

 can only occur when the fore- foot is raised from the 

 ground and the hind foot reaches right into the hollow of 

 the fore-foot. When the fore and hind feet in this posi- 

 tion separate, the inner border of the toe of the hind shoe 

 catches the heel of the fore-foot and cuts off a slice. This 

 cut portion often hangs as a flap, and when it does, tha 

 attachment is always at the back, showing that the 

 injury was not from behind forwards, as it would be if 



