The Shoeing Smith's Duties. 117 



weight falls on the joints squarely and evenly. But if, say, 

 the inside wall of the foot be lowered more than the outside, 

 as in Fig. 2, F, it is obvious that an uneven strain will be 

 thrown on the joints, which no amount of lubrication will 

 prevent from working stiffly, and in racing at top speed 

 cause the horse to become what is termed " leg weary." In 

 making this last statement, it is possible I may be skating on 

 thin ice, and it may be asked what a mere stud groom can 

 know about training race-horses. My answer is, that there 

 are plenty of men who have won their spurs as stud grooms 

 who would have been equally successful as trainers, but for 

 lack of one great essential opportunity. 



This by the way. To return to the foal's and yearling's 

 feet, I must point out that whereas horses, blessed from 

 birth with a set of true straight limbs, can be kept so by 

 keeping the feet perfectly level, on the other hand, a set of 

 crooked legs can be improved, if not completely cured, by a 

 judicious use of the smith's rasp. If faulty conformation 

 of legs will not yield to persistent treatment during their 

 growing and developing stage, they are not likely to do so 

 when all growth has ceased, and the horse's limbs have 

 become set and matured. The three commonest forms of 

 faulty leg conformation met with are what are termed in 

 plain stable language: Pigeon Toes, Fig. 4; Splay Foot, 

 Fig. 5; Upright Pasterns, Fig. 6. 



In " Pigeon Toes " (Fig. 4) the weight of the horse's 

 forehand falls chiefly on the outside quarter (A) of the foot, 

 which in consequence wears away much faster than the 

 inside quarter, thereby facilitating the growth of the fetlock 

 in a lateral instead of a perpendicular direction. The 

 obvious treatment is to reverse matters by rasping the inside 

 quarter down till it is lower than the outside quarter, which 

 will have the tendency of bringing the twisted fetlock back 



