CARE AND TRAINING OF TROTTERS AND PACERS. 



colt would rest upon the toe of the opposite foot in such 

 ;i manner that several times he broke off the entire toe 

 of the hoof, and that in order to avoid this they had to 

 shoe one foot at a time, but they said that when they 

 applied hig-h heels onto the shoes he would at times rest 

 upon them, but on account of being so high they had a 

 tendency to stop him when at speed; anyhow his career 

 was so short and meteoric that they did not have a 

 cliance to do much experimenting along those lines on 

 him. 



I am at present shoeing a very fast animal, that is, I 

 have shod him once so far. He is a free-for-all pacer by 

 the name of Harry L. He was sent to me with the orders 

 not to touch his feet behind, simply shoe him as he was 

 shod. Well, he wore a rim-steel shoe behind, and the 

 shoe was worn away from the toe back to the second nail 

 hole. The toe of the foot was also worn away some, but 

 the heels of the shoe — they were plain heels — were not 

 touched, and the foot had been worn to such an angle 

 that when the foot rested on the floor the toe was worn 

 off so much that the heels of the shoe— they were all that 

 remained on the foot — slanted up so that the back part of 

 them were at least a half-inch off the floor, the surface 

 of the sole having a sort of ball bearing appearance. Well, 

 I shod him new again and, actually, he walked right upon 

 his toes in such a manner that it appeared as though he 

 would knuckle over at every step. The angle of his hind 

 feet was seventy degrees, but this was a case of deformity 

 pure and simple. One could readily see that the entire 

 column of bones were set to conform with the angle of the 

 foot, and the ligaments were also drawn up or shortened 

 until they resembled a bow-string, and yet this animal 

 raced fast and sound. 



Naturally, some horses, or breeds of horses, have a 

 pre-disposition to this trouble, but I know that we can 

 work wonders along these lines by simply attending to 

 the feet of the colts from the time they are weaned up 

 to the time they are shod, and I also know that we would 

 have far less bad-gaited animals and better limbed ones 

 if this all-important question was lived up to. But there 

 are very few breeding establishments that pay any atten- 

 tion to the feet of their young colts. They are probably 

 trimmed once or twice by some farm hand who simply cuts 

 off everything that comes within range of his nippers. 



