LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 367 



every horse alike, which is utterly impossible to do with 

 satisfactory results. 



Wolford's Z., was another horse that I had in connec- 

 tion with whom my blacksmith was a great deal of benefit 

 to me, as he was a horse that hit himself on his front legs and 

 every other place, I think, it was possible for a horse to do 

 so. He wore arm and knee boots and shin and quarter 

 boots when he came into my stable, and could not be moved 

 without his hitting his boots very severely. Jim Brayton, 

 of Elkhart, Ind. , shod him for me after a plan which I have 

 found very satisfactory in cases of this Idnd. In shoeing a 

 horse to prevent his hitting his knee, many blacksmiths file 

 off the inside of the foot, and by so doing bring the foot to 

 a point, or as it were, try to make the horse toe out. 

 Others have ideas about putting most of the weight on one 

 side or the other of the shoe. I have tried all these plans 

 but with poor result. Brayton leveled the horse' s foot per- 

 fectly, shortened up the toe moderately, then made his shoe 

 tit the foot with the weight evenly distributed and after it 

 was ready to nail on, he heated the toe, placed the shoe in 

 his vice, and with a rasp cut off the toe of the shoe square 

 across so it would look about like the box-toe of an English- 

 man' s shoe. After nailing it on the foot, with his rasp he 

 cut of the toe of the foot back even with the shoe. After 

 Wolford's Z., was shod in this manner he looked rj^ther 

 peculiar, as I had never seen a horse's feet so treated, but 

 the result was i^erfectly satisfactory, as he stopped hitting 

 himself and was a much faster and better race-horse, im- 

 proved his record and won some very satisfactory races. I 

 tried this same plan on Argyle the pacer to my entire satis- 

 faction. 



In a trotting or pacing horse I object very much to hav- 

 ing their feet allowed to grow out very long. I am sure 

 that they are very much more apt to hit themselves and 

 sooner or later strain their tendons. Argyle was a rather 

 peculiar horse, his gait being different from that of any other 

 pacer I ever saw, it being very much like that of a trotter. 



