HORSE-TRAINING MADE EASY. 99 



the front feet. The most successful means of 

 preventing this habit, is to make the front shoes 

 a little lighter, which facilitates their motion, the 

 animal lifting them up so quickly — the hind ones 

 should be a little heavier. Trifling as this differ- 

 ence may appear, it is very generally successful ; 

 an ounce of iron will make a very marked differ- 

 ence in the movement of most animals, as much 

 so as weight upon the back. 



SHOEING HORSES WITH CORNS. 



The corn should be well cut out, and then 

 burned with a red-hot iron, muriatic acid, or but- 

 ter of antimony. The shoe recommended for 

 contracted feet should be here applied ; the hoof 

 backwards from the corn to the heel should be 

 removed, so that no part of the hoof back from 

 the corn have any bearing upon the shoe; by this 

 means we prevent all concussion that otherwise 

 would fall upon the part affected; the animal thus 

 shod will travel sound though the corn be a bad 

 one. Much depends upon the careful and skilful 

 application of the shoe, independently of its being 

 constructed on proper principles. Many horses 

 with very bad feet are enabled to go sound for 

 years by a combination of care and skill, while on 

 the contrary a single shoeing done by a bungling 

 workman would suffice to lame them. It requires 

 considerable skill to fit a shoe properly on a bad 

 foot, so as to save the weakest parts and econo- 

 mize the horn. 



