How TO Fit a Shoe. 579 



to be torn off by the hind-feet treading on tlie fore, or to interfere with the elastic action of 

 the frog. 



For many years a strong prejudice has prevailed on tlie part of gentlemen against hot 

 fitting. In this case the farriers were right and the gentlemen wrong. The evils supposed to 

 result from hot fitting are purely chimerical. 



" In hot fitting the shoe is readily adapted to the foot, more equally applied than in 

 cold fitting, and rests solidly on the foot, so that the nails are not broken or displaced by 

 the shoe becoming loose — in a word, there is a more intimate contact between the iron and 

 the surface of the horn. The very fact of burning or fusing the ends of the fibres ensures a 

 solid durable bed, which cannot otherwise be obtained ; as it destroys the absorbent properties 

 of horn it assists it to resist the influence of moisture. 



" It requires a very prolonged application of the hot shoe to aff'ect the hoof to any 

 considerable depth. It has been proved that three minutes' burning of the lower surface was 

 necessary to produce an increase of temperature — indicated by a thermometer — on its upper 

 surface. In practice it is never necessary to apply the hot shoe for more than three seconds. 



" However expert a workman, he can never level the horn with his tools so com- 

 pletely as by making an impression with a heated iron. The hoof is also softened by the 

 heat, and takes the nails and clips better. 



"Shoeing, as practised at ordinary forges, deprives the foot of its natural protection, 

 creates deformity and lameness, not only of the feet, but of the upper limbs. The natural 

 method only removes as much of the margin as will restore its natural length, leaving the 

 sole, bars, and frogs in their natural integrity. The hoofs of horses under my care appeared 

 such solid blocks of stone, that when one of them lost a shoe he travelled ten, twenty, or 

 thirty miles without any injury. 



" The fore-foot is particularly disposed to disease, and exposed to injury ; the hind-foot is 

 wonderfully exempt." 



Tips, or half shoes, properly embedded in the toes of fore-hoofs, so as not to interfere 

 with the proper level of the whole foot, when the frogs and quarters have not been destroyed 

 by the farrier's knife, answer well. The present Duke of Wellington used them for a long 

 time, and only discontinued their use because people were continually stopping to tell him 

 that his hack had lost a shoe. 



THE CHARLIER SHOE. 



Mr. Fleming strongly recommends for the fore-feet the Charlier shoe, which has long 

 been in use with the Paris omnibus-horses. It consists of a thin band of iron fitted into a 

 groove cut in the outside of the hoof. He has invented a knife with a movable guide, an 

 improvement on Mr. Charlier's, which may be fitted to the largest or smallest foot, and gives 

 the directions which will enable any intelligent person to make and apply the system. For 

 fore-shoes it has been adopted and approved by some of the first sportsmen of the day. 



On the other hand, many instances of the failure of the Charlier system have been re- 

 corded, and some veterinary surgeons denounce it with great vehemence. It demands good 

 metal and accurate workmanship. Unfortunately, the majority of shoeing smiths belong to a 

 trades union, which, " on principle," resists every attempt to improve a horseshoe which seems 

 likely to diminish the time required for making it — or, indeed, to make anything they have 

 not been accustomed to make. 



Many contrivances of leather, india-rubber, and gutta-percha, for the purpose of doing the 



