578 ■ The Book of the Horse. 



" In the majority of cases calkins do more liarm than good. While stationed with my 

 regiment in Edinburgh, in 1864-5, I dispensed with calkins on the hind shoes, and no accident 

 occurred on streets perhaps the most slippery in Britain. 



" I attribute this to keeping the hoofs healthy, properly adjusted, and strong, with the 

 frogs resting as much as possible on the ground." 



Mr. Fleming recommends a modification of the ordinary hunter shoe, for the details of 

 which reference must be made to his illustrated pamphlet. 



" For carriage, 'bus horses, hacks, and hunters, each fore and hind shoe should have a 

 clip drawn up the middle of the toe, except when a horse is in the habit of overreaching or 

 speedy cutting, in which case the hind-foot clips should be at the side." 



Clips judiciously placed are of service in retaining the shoe, and permitting the number of 

 nails to be diminished. 



" Machine-made shoes have generally proved either too soft and rapidly worn out, or too 

 hard and apt to break and induce slipping. But since the first edition of this work was 

 published, the Wolverhampton Horse Shoe Company have produced a soft malleable steel 

 shoe, of which Mr. J. Froude Bellew, Master of the Dulverton Hounds, Devonshire, speaks as 

 follows : — 



" As to sJioeing, I use the Wolverhampton Company's steel shoes. I never allow a 

 drawing knife in my forge. My orders are to shorten the toe, and burn on these light steel 

 shoes (they are so well shaped that they cannot touch the sole of the foot) quite half an 

 inch below the surface of the healthy frog. Then take the rasp, and make it (the rasp) 

 press evenly across the heels, bearing on each shoe heel, and on each division of the frog, 

 and if the frog protrudes by half an inch beyond the level of the heels, so much the 

 better. 



"There is, in my opinion, too much of shoeing horses. The Wolverhampton Horse Shoe 

 Company very properly do their best to unshoe by manufacturing a very light yet strong 

 shoe. I don't believe in the stuff written about protecting the horses' feet. In my opinion 

 the frogs require no protection ; on the contrary, the more work and the more pressure they 

 get, like the heavy hand of the smith who shoes them, the stronger they become. So the 

 more the smith uses his hands the better for his cuticle. 



" I believe that thrush is entirely occasioned by want of due pressure, and the work it 

 is the duty of the frog to perform. My horses, even with contracted feet and corns, go 

 sounder over newly-broken stones when well down on their frogs. Take a photograph of a 

 four-year-old colt's foot before breaking ; compare it with the foot of an aged horse, and 

 note the distortion of the latter, caused by the protection of thick shoes which have not 

 allowed the frog its due share in bearing the weight of the horse. 



"You know what awful lanes and rough hills I have to ride over with my hounds, yet 

 my horses never drop or give way. I find that the more I work their frogs the sounder 

 they go. I never allow a smith to touch the horn or frog at the bottom of the foot ; nature 

 pares and repairs them more effectually." 



Continuing my quotations from Mr. Fleming's pamphlet : — 



"The foot having been properly prepared by being reduced to its proper dimensions, the 

 shoe should fit the foot. A common contrary plan is to fi.x the shoe, and then rasp down 

 the wall of the foot to fit the shoe — a most mischievous practice. 



"As a rule, the shoe should be wide enough at the toe, quarters, and heels to support 

 the entire thickness of the wall, but not so wide or long as to endanger the opposite limbs 



