108 CARE AND TRAINING OP TROTTERS AND PACERS. 



applied, often the Charlier shoe or "tip" being^ used. I have 

 it from reliable information that invariably the feet of 

 these ponies that undergo this shortening process are the 

 best and are free from corns, bruises and quarter cracks. 



I know of a large teaming stable in Chicago, the owner 

 of which is a graduate veterinarian, and he tells me that 

 the best feet on many of his horses are those that occa- 

 sionally lose a shoe while on the road, his orders to the 

 drivers being, drive to the nearest shop and have an old 

 flat shoe tacked on to the foot, and do not allow the smith 

 to dress the foot in any way. Especially is the use of the 

 knife forbidden. Those horses travel over the rock paved 

 streets on their frogs, bars and soles, they do not go lame 

 or sore, simply because those parts are left intact and 

 able to perform their duty as nature intended they should. 



Of what use is a pad under a light shoe? Some say a 

 pad covering the foot and packed with oakum only adds to 

 the concussion of the sole. Others say it breaks concus- 

 sion, so there you are. I believe that outside of holding 

 moisture to keep the sole of the foot soft that pads are, 

 in most cases, unnecessary. If the foot were dressed as it 

 ought to be from the beginning, and the sole, frog and 

 bars left intact, the use of pads, especially the full pad, 

 could be dispensed with. The structures named would 

 secrete sufficient moisture naturally, that is if they are 

 permitted to fulfill their function as weight carriers and 

 concussion destroyers. I believe that where a pad is indi- 

 cated, on account of the track being extremely hard, the 

 rim pad of very thin leather will answer the purpose very 

 well. The animal would get along better yet if we left 

 just a trifle more sole and wall. There is just about as 

 much elasticity in the natural sole and wall as we could 

 expect to find in the average leather pad. 



To sum up; I believe, in fact I know from experience, 

 that if we dress the foot of the colt in this manner and 

 keep the wall dressed down at regular intervals, and then 

 follow the same principle when we shoe him, we will 

 have considerably less of the common ailments that the 

 foot falls heir to. 



On the other hand, I would not advise taking an animal, 

 especially an aged one. that has had its frog, bars and sole 

 trimmed out until they were thin enough to give under the 

 pressure of the thumb, and where the frog is dried up and 

 shrunk out of all semblance of a natural frog, and the foot 



