The Shoeing Smiths Duties. 115 



several times of the reverse being the case. I have seen the 

 smith pick up a practically perfect foot, with a fine wide 

 " frog " and prominent " bars," and calmly, and as a matter 

 of routine, take a goodly slice off each side of the frog, pare 

 the " bars " almost out of existence, ending up by cutting 

 nicks at the extreme heel of the hoof between the frog and 

 walls. The stereotyped answer to a query as to the reason 

 for this mutilation was " opening the heels." I have always 

 attempted to explain on such occasions how eminently calcu- 

 lated such methods were to defeat the very object they were 

 intended to facilitate. If the reader will look at the outline 

 of a horse's hoof, sketched in Fig. 3, he will readily perceive 

 why. Capt. Hayes, in his " Veterinary Notes for Horse 

 Owners," page 644, says : " An examination of the horse's 

 foot shows us that the horn at the heels is secreted by the 

 membrane which is wrapped round the ends of the wings of 

 the pedal bone. Hence it is really impossible to open out 

 the heels without first fracturing the pedal bone. To use 

 Professor Williams' words, the hoof is a ' simple horny 

 box,' which neither expands nor contracts, as these terms 

 are popularly understood." A glance at Fig. 3 will show 

 that the only place where expansion or contraction would 

 be likely to take place is at points B and C. The bars D D, 

 which are continuations of the wall A, are the lateral braces 

 or supports, the internal space between which is further 

 reinforced by the fully developed frog E. It is obvious that 

 if the bars are pared away, and the frog reduced in width, 

 contraction, or, for that matter, expansion, between B and C 

 is facilitated. Hence my contention that "opening out the 

 heels " with the knife is wrong both in theory and practice. 

 The only tool the shoeing smith will require when deal- 

 ing with a normal foot is a small rasp, with which he will 



