CHAPTER X. 



Shoeing Bad Feet. 



Any average farrier can shoe without immediate 

 harm a good, well- formed foot that has a thick covering 

 of horn, but when the horn is deficient in quantity or 

 quality, injury soon takes place if a badly fitted shoe be 

 applied. There are feet which from disease or accident 

 or bad shoeing have become, more or less, permanently 

 damaged. Some are seriously altered in shape. Some 

 are protected only by an unhealthy horn, and some show 

 definite changes which cause weakness at a special part. 

 These are the feet which really test the art of the 

 farrier, for he must know just what to do and what not 

 to do, and must possess the skill to practice what he 

 knows. 



Flat Feet. — Some horses are born with flat feet, 

 others acquire them as the result of disease. Too often 

 the flat sole has another defect accompanying it — low, 

 weak heels. Such feet are best shod with a seated shoe 

 so as to avoid any uneven pressure on the sole, and the 

 shoes should always be fitted a little longer than the 

 bearing-surface of the foot, so as to avoid any risk of 

 producing a bruise at the heel — in other words, of causing 

 a corn. The seated shoe is not advisable on a hunter. 

 The concave shoe used for hunters has many distinct 

 advantages and only one disadvantage for a flat foot, 

 viz., that it has a wide, flat foot-surface. It may cause 

 an uneven pressure at the toe on a flat sole, but this is 

 easily avoided by not making it too wide; perhaps the 

 very worst thing to do with a flat foot is to try and make 

 it look less flat by paring it down. The thinner the horn 

 the greater the chance of injury to the sensitive parts 

 under it, and every injury tends to make the sole 

 weaker. Leaving the sole strong and thick, whilst 

 fitting the shoe to avoid uneven pressure, is the principle 

 of shoeing to be adopted with flat feet. 



lOS 



