SHOEING COLTS. 105 



on some of the most prominent stock farms in the 

 country, and farms are the ideal school for any 

 one interested in this work. No, what I say is not 

 theory, but fact, as the average horseman or 

 horseshoer is well aware. They all know better, 

 but they often overlook the small details, looking 

 for the larger ones. Instead of getting at the seat 

 of the trouble, the cause as it were, and removing 

 it, they entirely overlook it in their endeavor to 

 correct gait with new-fangled shoes, toe weights, 

 pads, bits, straps, and the like. 



REPLYING TO AN INQUIRY. 



Dear Sir: In a recent issue of The Horseman j-our advice on colt 

 shoeing was to let the frog, sole and bars have ground bearing, so 

 they would perform their natural duties and retain a healthy con- 

 dition. Now we find cases where such would be impossible and what 

 I wish to know is this, if the wall, sole, frog, and bars were rasped 

 perfectly flat and a perfectly flat disk of steel, shoe shape, was 

 nailed on, would bad results follow from concussion on sole, bars, or 

 frog, or all three? In case of open heeled shoeing should pressure 

 be allowed between s«le and shoe inside of lamni? I ask this because 

 our shoer forbids the least sole pressure and another says without it, 

 the wall will be split loose from the foot. — L. E., Calif. 



The horse in its natural state has an equal amount of 

 frog', bar and sole bearing along with the wall bearing, 

 and in nine cases out of ten the average race horse, after 

 wearing his shoes for several weeks, will be found to have 

 the same bearing distributed over the entire surface of 

 the hoof, especially is this the case when the shoe is made 

 of very thin material and devoid of calks. Cases are rare, 

 Indeed, where the sole does not grow down after a few 

 V, eeks of shoeing, so that it is perfectly even with the 

 wall, and shoe, it matters not how much of an effort we 

 may make to prevent or avoid this condition by excessive 

 paring out the sole, the bars and the frog. 



It is not good policy to attempt to rasp the wall, sole 

 and frog perfectly flat; but it is good practice to rasp the 

 sole, wall and bars level, but in all cases we must strive to 

 preserve the frog, every particle of it. It matters not how 

 much frog pressure we obtain, the more the better. This 

 idea, or rather notion, that we save the sole and frog from 

 concussion by cutting them away so that they cannot 



